Playing With Fire
by Gemini97
Summary: Danny knew something was up when in the dead of night he saves the distressed spirit of a phoenix from being captured by the Guys in White. However, what he didn't know was that by-so doing, he was in for one heck of a ride… Sequel to Survival of the Fittest
1. Prologue

**Hello once again, peoples! **

**Hehe, I guess I'll explain before we start. I know I said I was going to write a couple one shots, but this idea burrowed into my head and wouldn't stop haunting me! Anyways, you can thank my muses, first of all...**

Muses: Hehe, hi! *waves at audience*

**Anyways, at first I was thinking this would be a stand alone story, but because some of you asked (hehe ;)), I've made it the sequel to SotF. So there will be some references to it in this story, just so you know.**

**And also, being the classical music addict I am, this was inspired by a classical piece: The Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky... It's really awesome! Music is a powerful thing, people! 99 out of 100 times it's music that inspires my writing. And also—**

George: *coughs*

**Okay, I'll stop talking so you can read! But, before that let me just say that I hope you enjoy! This prologue takes place during the last chapter of SotF, just in a different setting with a different person... it might seem a little... er, what's the word for it? Mm, _cryptic_, but that's how it's supposed to be... for now, at least! It'll all clear up soon, though! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom**

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**Playing With Fire  
****Gemini**

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**Prologue  
****Revelations**

All was still that night in the Ghost Zone. Not a single specter, it seems, was out and about—at least in this particular area. Not a single one, that is, except for a shadowy hooded figure wandering around the courtyards of a large dark castle.

While the aura around the place resembled the feeling that emanated from Pariah Dark's castle, this one looked entirely different. It was narrower at the base but compensated for what it lacked in width by its height. An amazing arrangement of tall towers that left one awestruck reached upward towards the dark swirling clouds overhead, dark gray gargoyles perched upon the battlements with their fanged mouths opened in a silent snarl.

A wild jungle of dark green and black trees extended all the way from the edge of the floating island to snugly fit against the tall structure. Since the castle was never entered this way, brambles and ivy stretched across the entrance. The vegetation wrapped and intertwined itself in the metal bars of the portcullis so much that even if someone tried to lift it, they would have quite a bit of trouble. The way that the place was infested by the foliage... well, it was almost unnatural.

However, to the ghost that resided here, he couldn't have cared less at this predicament. In fact, he was the one who saw to it that it was this way. Ever since he had left the Human Realm and begun his afterlife in this place, he had despised the company of others. So, his abode was conveniently tucked away in the desolate outskirts of the Ghost Zone. Time stood still in this place, and there was no one to be seen for as far as the eyes could see. Everything was quiet, which was how the specter liked it. But, should any foolish ghost have had the audacity to try to penetrate the dark walls of his home, he had many... defenses... placed around the island to keep the intruder away. And for himself getting outside of his fortress (however rare the occasion might have been); well, he had his ways.

So he had existed like this for a very long time: a solitary ghost that had shut himself away from the rest of the world. He hadn't, however, been like that always; before he had been quite powerful. That was centuries previously, though, and he'd lost interest with the rest of the Ghost Zone. He now only directed his powers at intruders. Yes, he'd lost interest with the rest of the Zone; that is, until quite recently.

Something happened that he hadn't experienced for thousands of years: he'd felt... surprised.

"Yes... quite a surprise." The ghost mused out loud with the vaguest hint of a Russian accent in his voice, leisurely wandering around the courtyard alone. It was true that because of this little 'surprise' that he had begun to leave his residence more often and explore what had become of the Ghost Zone and even the Human Realm while he had been shut away. Quite a bit _had_ changed from when he had last seen it. He cast amused glances at the statues of people and ghosts that were lined up decorating either side of the cobblestone walkway he was strolling along.

Most of these statues looked quite strange, some cowering and hunched over, some on their knees with their hands raised protectively in front of their faces, and even some that had their arms seemingly pinned to their sides, their shoulders rigid and hitched up... But, the one thing they all had in common was that their eyes were all wide open with terror.

He paused and turned to face one on the left side of the path. He approached the finely sculpted figure of a young man, who would have been quite taller than the ghost if it hadn't been for the fact that his knees were bent a bit and he appeared to be leaning backwards from fright. The ghost was now at eye level with the sculpture; he smiled pensively as he raised a pasty white hand to trace his fingertips lightly against the smooth lower eyelid of the statue's right eye. This one stood out from a lot of the others because it was much more detailed—almost lifelike, in fact. He had to admit that this statue was one of his better ones. A lot of the ones that came before him were much more roughly hewn. But, as of late the ones that he had created were much more defined and smooth; they even had irises and pupils in their wide eyes, whereas the others just had blank solid ones. It was a dramatic change since he had more... time to work on them... Yes, even though he didn't sculpt nearly as much these days, he could spend more time perfecting whatever he _did _sculpt.

The ghost came out of his thoughts enough to register that a large black object fast like lightning had swooped down from above and landed smoothly on his shoulder. He absentmindedly raised a hand to stroke the head of the yellow-eyed crow. The specter smiled, his thoughtful extremely pale blue eyes still not wavering from the statue in front of him. His thoughts had meanwhile turned back towards the 'surprise,' having been reminded of it by all of the statues surrounding him.

"I wonder," the ghost suddenly sighed sibilantly, startling the huge crow perched on his shoulder, "how our old friend Miss Dark is doing..." He chuckled condescendingly. The crow cawed and ruffled its feathers irritably as the figure suddenly spun sharply on his heels (causing the bird to sway precariously from the force), to start walking off in the direction of the front doors of the castle. The ghost passed by the rest of the marble statues with long strides, hands behind his back as he glanced carelessly up at the dark sky. "Well, I think it's safe to assume that she hasn't taken over the Ghost Zone yet... or even the Human Realm, for that matter; am I right, my friend?" he consulted the bird on his shoulder.

The crow's head hunched over as its shoulders bobbed up and down, hissing in what could have been interpreted as derisive laughter. The ghost smirked, "Yes, I am right..." He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Ambitious child..." he muttered.

It had only been a couple weeks since he saw the daughter of Pariah Dark on the grounds of her father's fortress. It had been one of those rare occasions where he had actually left the walls of his own castle and thought that for curiosity's sake he would pass by the Ghost King's castle. At first he had thought that something strange was afoot since the swirling clouds above the fortress were churning, lightning flashing across the sky with deafening booms of thunder resulting. But no one was to be seen!

So, he entered the castle and deftly maneuvered his way through the booby traps as he had done so many times before to check on the slumbering king. But, to his surprise Pariah was still lying in his sarcophagus...

* * *

_He sat staring up at the sarcophagus, quite bewildered; if **he **wasn't awake... then who was responsible for...?_

"_Witch boy!" came a voice from behind him, but he hardly even flinched. _

_His senses were keen and had heard the other entity approach from behind. The girl's voice sounded irritated, but she also sounded quite surprised. He winced at her terminology before calmly turning around to face Melania Dark. The girl was floating just inside the double doors, obviously having just entered the great hall. Her eyebrows were raised, eyes widened in genuine puzzlement._

_Although he was in truth probably just as confused as she was, if not more, he concealed it well. He grinned with gritted teeth, "I **do **so wish that you would stop calling me that..."_

"_What are you doing here?" she ignored his statement and slowly stammered out, half asking, half demanding of the other ghost. "In my father's resting place?" _

_It was one of the rare times where the ghost girl actually showed sincerity. Although she didn't really care that he was disturbing her father's resting place, it truly did surprise her that he was here of all places. She knew perfectly well that this ghost became a recluse after her father's downfall._

"_Aren't you supposed to be locked away in that castle of yours?" she asked with a little more tease in her voice._

_He shrugged, "Aren't you supposed to be locked away in that infernal prison of Walker's, Melania Dark?"_

_She shrugged in return, "Ah, touché... You always had a way with amusing me, witch boy! You haven't changed at all from when we last saw each other."_

"_Really..." he rolled his eyes dryly before looking at her, rubbing his chin, "You've changed a great deal..." _

"_I know I have, haven't I?" she asked with a small smirk spreading across her lips. Her eyes seemed to have finally found her father's sarcophagus; her smoldering red eyes seemed to light up the rest of the hall as they slightly darkened, making her smirk seem more evil than teasing as it had been before._

_The other ghost glanced behind him as if to confirm what she was glaring at. He chuckled as he turned back to her, "Still holding a grudge, are you?"_

_Before she could respond, however, he noticed a particular accessory that she was wearing, "Well," his tone had darkened considerably, to the point where it almost even intimidated the ghost girl, "Whatever you're planning on doing with my Gem—"_

"_Wait..." Melania got over the surprise at his new attitude, chuckling just as darkly, "**Your **Gem?"_

"_**Yes. My **Gem. I was the one who—"_

"_Don't make me laugh! It's not yours! It **was **my father's... and now it's mine." She smiled complacently, enjoying the look of contempt on the other ghost's face._

"_Regardless of whose it is..." he growled shakily, "If anything happens to that, I just think it's fair of me to warn you, I'm going to..." his lips closed tightly together to form a straight line as he seemed to loom over the shorter ghost. Dark gray flames of energy licked at his hands threateningly._

_Melania chuckled, "Oh, come now; there's no need for that! Now, calm down before you hurt yourself, witch boy..."_

_The ghost was further enraged by her words, yet he still managed to hold himself back. After all, he didn't want anything bad to happen to that crystal..._

_He pointed a finger slowly at her face, "I swear, if you **do **let something happen to it..."_

"_Oh, I'll do whatever I want with it... But however, it isn't my plan to destroy such an object, so you can relax." She was already floating back towards the exit at a leisurely pace. _

_He folded his arms, glaring after the slim young woman, though sighing with relief on the inside._

"_Besides—" she said abruptly before turning around to face him again at the doors. "Even if I **did **let something happen to it... it's not like you'd be able to do anything to punish me in the first place... **right**, witch boy?"_

* * *

He had reached the marble stairs leading up to the tall double doors. His feet fell violently on each step as he climbed.

"Little brat... I should have carried out my threat then and there..." he quietly growled. His gaze lowered as they glowed brighter in the semi-darkness. The whites of his eyes seemed to flash a bright yellow for the briefest moment. "Ah well, everyone makes mistakes. _She'd _just better not make one if she knows what's good for her... My fate is in her foolish hands."

The ghost pushed the doors aside as he entered, barely breaking his stride as he marched into the castle. The ghost bird on his shoulder was disgruntled apparently with the rough way he was walking; it gave another harsh call before taking wing, flying once around the spacious room before landing on the railing of the grandiose staircase, hunched over with its eyes on its master watching silently. He halted suddenly in the middle of the room, as if in deep thought.

He thought he had just felt something... No, it couldn't have been... But... could it? It seemed as if he was suddenly drained of energy. That hadn't happened since... But he knew that feeling well. He supposed it shouldn't have surprised him; she was bound to use it sooner or later. In fact, over the past couple of days he had starting to feel slightly more tired than before. It was just that it had been hardly noticeable compared to this. Melania must've actually used a large amount of energy this time.

_That little... If she gets any more frivolous with that, I'll be comatose for a week... _he found his anger returning at this stirring feeling in his chest.

"Sir..."

"What is it now?!" he snapped, whipping around to face the two guards that had entered after him.

The guard that had spoken glanced nervously with the one next to him, slightly taken aback at his reaction.

"Er... well, sir, you see..."

"This had better be good..." he clenched his hands into fists, the whites of his eyes once again that bright hue of yellow.

"...we have just circled the perimeter, just like you asked..."

The ghost nodded slowly, his eyes softening slightly. However... "And what is it that you found so important as to bother me with at this time?"

"Well..." the guard nudged his shoulder against the one next to him, falling silent.

The soldier inwardly winced, hating to be the deliverer of this piece of news. "We found that the sneak thief has once again stolen several of the Golden Apples..."

Their master stayed silent for a moment before saying quietly and quite calmly, though it was clear that irritation was brimming under the surface, "And you _still _haven't managed to figure out who it is?" _Who could slip past all of his traps and manage to get so close to his habitation, not to mention __**steal **__from him undetected? _His voice seemed to get a little more intense, "This has been going on for a week; this thief has been sneaking in and out for quite some time now. How is it that you can't find out who the culprit is?!"

"Actually, we have... We caught it in the process of stealing them and shot at the intruder, but missed. However, the arrow did snag on **this**..." the guard produced a long red feather from the folds of his cloak.

The ghost's eyes widened and his curiosity was peaked at this piece of evidence. He held out his hand expectantly. The guard complied with the silent request and handed the feather humbly to him, bowing his head slightly before backing away. He began to examine the feather more closely, though what he saw only confirmed his suspicions more.

It was a rich crimson color overall, with hints of orange that gleamed metallically in the torchlight. It looked very much like a peacock's feather, with a golden "eye" at the end, which also reflected brightly. It seemed to exude a warm and soft-glowing golden light. It was even warm to the touch, which felt strange to the ghost's cold and clammy hands. He ran a thumb over the slightly damaged end of the feather; he had begun to pace up and down in front of them.

_The firebird... _He turned up to face the guards fiercely, "Are you meaning to tell me that all this time it was _that... that __**pigeon**_ that was stealing my Golden Apples and you couldn't tell who or what it was?!"

The guards seemed to look anxiously at one another to come up with a response, but he continued, "Never mind! I want that blasted bird captured _right __**now**_!"

"Y-y-yes, sir!" the guards stuttered before promptly making their exit.

He then went back to pacing up and down the hall, slipping the feather under his cloak. For several hours, it seemed, he was pacing up and down, stuck in these thoughts. Lately he was having much more to think about. It wasn't often things like this had been forced on him. He wished things were back to how they had been right after the Ghost King's fall... things were much simpler then since he wasn't caught up in all that drama of the outside worlds... He stayed in here, and nothing dared to invade his property. He had after all, become a solitary ghost after those days of action ended for a reason. He was tired of it all! But, it seemed that he was being forced out of his quiet afterlife again. First meeting the Ghost King's daughter again (whom he had frankly hoped never to see again), also the firebird that was invading his territory and stealing his property... what could possibly come next?

It seemed he was answered with another bout of exhaustion, this time leaving him swaying slightly on the spot. He rubbed his temples, moaning lightly. _Drat! _Darn that infernal ghost girl!

"She's not being very conservative when it comes to my ener-..." he drifted off, beginning to feel a horrible stirring sensation inside his chest. "-gy..." he finished the word shakily, his knees buckling. He leaned heavily onto the railing of the staircase. The crow that had been watching him this whole time fidgeted anxiously, peering down at him worriedly.

It felt cold; so freezing, in fact, that it was starting to burn. He lifted his hand and placed it over where his ghost core should have been. The feeling was intensifying...

"Uuuuuh..." he grimaced, his grip on the railing so tight his knuckles were turning blue. The gray flames came back to his hand, starting to burn at the rail.

The burning suddenly stopped with a jarring smashing sound that echoed in the ghost's ears. However, the pain didn't stop there. He screamed out in agony as he felt a stabbing feeling at his core.

He slid down to the floor, vaguely registering what must have just happened. That's it... the Gem was gone. But... if that were so... how was it that he was still in existence?

He stood up wearily, noticing that the part of the railing he had been holding onto for support was no longer the fine mahogany wood, but rather a rock-hard stony substance.

It was then that he realized that he had also been clutching onto the fiery-colored peacock's feather…. The phoenix's powers of regeneration must have saved him for the time being…

Wait. Powers of… regeneration? Well… it looked like that _**pigeon**_ had some worth after all…

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***grins* Please pardon my enigmatic ways! Make sure you review! I really wanna know what you think of it!**


	2. Chapter One: A New Day

**Hello! I want to thank all of you who took the time to read this and all the reviewers for their thoughts, of course! I'm sorry; I would've updated sooner, but I've been a little busy lately and didn't have the chance to start writing this chapter until quite a while after I posted the prologue. But, I hope that I made this worth your wait! And even though this is a fairly slow chapter for the most part (besides a little action near the end), it's a little necessary before we dive headfirst into all that... fun-ness... that awaits you within the next chapter or two... *grins mysteriously* **

**Oh, and just a heads up before we begin—now we've fast-forwarded a little bit and the story picks up right after Infinite Realms. So not too much has happened between these events! Happy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom  
**

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**Chapter One  
****A New Day  
**

"I don't believe this..." Danny groaned, closing his eyes and lying back on his elbows as he let his head fall back to soak in the rays of the sun.

It was a rather lovely day—the temperature was nice and warm while a gentle breeze and only partly cloudy skies prevented it from becoming too hot. However, the weather was the last thing on Danny Fenton's mind.

"You've got _that _right," Tucker said, taking a huge bite out of his piece of pizza. He leaned outward slightly as his gaze followed two girls that were passing by, adjusting his glasses and flashing his debonair smile. However he frowned as they veered away from him, not even so much as a glance from them. "I've _still _not got a date for the dance! What's wrong—do I have something in my teeth?" he picked at his teeth with a fingernail, looking distraught.

Danny continued without acknowledging Tucker, "I don't believe this," he repeated, "_Another _test for midterm? And I have only a day to study for it."

Sam rolled her eyes and turned a page of the biology textbook so quickly that it almost ripped, "Come on, Danny. It's not Lancer's fault you waited until the last minute to study."

"It's not my fault either though! You know I was busy dealing with Pla-..." he trailed off as another student passed by on their way to sit on the bleachers. "things..." he said cryptically, earning a strange stare from the person going by at his sudden hushed and secretive tone. He glowered down at the grass by him, yanking up a handful and beginning to slowly shred the blades to bits and pieces to quietly vent his violent mood.

"Yeah, I know that," Sam said, not currently looking at him but rather skimming through her textbook looking for important information that was most likely going to be on the test. She understood perfectly well. Just barely the day previously they'd been busy chasing Danny's billionaire elder rival all over the Ghost Zone, trying to regain possession of the Infi-Map. She still had the bitter taste in her mouth from almost being burned at the stake because of witchcraft. _Witchcraft... __**honestly**_, if what she had felt towards Vlad Masters before was dislike, now she _hated _him! "And that's why we're using this time to study, not gripe about how unfair it is that you have such a jerk of an archenemy. Now _come on_, Danny—concentrate..."

Danny forced himself to take a bite of an apple as Sam began asking him questions out of the book. He really _was_ tired; how long had it been since he had had a decent night's rest again? Probably not in a while. Ever since he'd defeated Melania Dark and things had gone back to normal Plasmius was acting even more aggressive than normal. He was still seething over the destruction of a certain mind-controlling crystal and had it out for him. And something told Danny that the whole Infi-Map thing probably didn't help the situation. Take having to deal with school and Vlad during the day plus having to take care of Amity Park's ghost problem at night and that added up to one hectic schedule that had no room for rest. Danny was starting to nod off even more than usual during class. And, as a result his grades that he thought were starting to slowly pull up were dropping even more. So, what he had to resort to lately was using his lunchtime as study-time; there were so many things he'd rather be doing during his only free time! Like sleeping! He just wished that he could have a break... so he could rest... Rest... that sounded good...

"Danny?" Sam asked after a long pause. However, once she turned to her half-ghost friend, she noticed that he had his eyes closed and mouth open, totally unconscious. The Goth girl growled and jabbed him in the leg with the sharpened end of her pencil. "Danny!"

Danny waved her off, "No Mom... I don't wanna get up yet, it's _Saturday_..."

Tucker snorted, clapping a hand over his mouth as Sam turned sharply towards him, "He's totally _out _of it isn't he?"

"Danny!" she shouted again, snapping her fingers by his ear and this time succeeding in waking him up.

"Huh?" Danny blearily opened his eyes.

"What is cellular respiration?" Sam repeated the question slowly, folding her arms.

"Oh... er..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, sitting up straight.

Tucker stuffed the rest of the pizza into his mouth and swallowed it before guzzling down the rest of his carton of milk. "Bleh..." he groaned loudly, wiping off his mouth with his sleeve. "Danny, you _still _owe me. _Big _time!"

As Sam frowned at the sudden change of subject, she rolled her eyes, "Oh, you're not still going on about _that, _are you?"

"Of course I am!" Tucker angrily replied. "I still haven't gotten the taste of those terrible vegetables out of my mouth!" he made a disgusted face, shuddering at the memory of all of those bloodblossoms he had to consume.

"Ah, you don't regret saving my life, now _do _you, Tuck?" Danny inquired, wryly peering sideways at him.

"Well, no," Tucker frowned, shifting his gaze towards another group of girls, trying desperately to at least catch their attention. "But still—my stomach is still recovering from the trauma!"

Sam raised an eyebrow, closing the textbook with a snap, "Surely those bloodblossoms couldn't have been _that _bad—"

"Easy for you to say, Sam! Maybe the reason I don't have a date for the dance next week is because of the horrible breath they gave me!" he sniffed his breath awkwardly while yet another girl avoided eye contact with him.

The techno-geek gave a loud frustrated growl, shifting his position so he sat on his heels, "_Why won't anyone say __**yes?!**_" he shouted, startling all of the nearby students. Several peered over at the group of three with concern, wondering what was going on.

"Honestly, Tucker. It's not that important." Sam muttered, frowning at her friend's desperate manner.

"Oh, this is an exact repeat of last year! What gives?" Tucker moaned.

"Sam's right, Tucker. You shouldn't dwell on it. If no girls want to go with you to the dance, that's _their _problem, not yours." Danny resolutely said.

Sam leaned back, using an arm to prop her up, "Yeah, exactly! Just know that they're missing out."

Tucker sighed heavily, "Well, if you _say _so..."

"Don't worry, Foley!"

All three of them jumped at the sound of an unexpected voice above them. They whipped around to see Dash Baxter holding a pile of flyers and the rest of the A-Lister's standing nearby. What was weird was that Dash seemed to have a sincere consoling expression, if that were possible. Danny, Sam, and Tucker stared up at him, nonplussed.

"After all," he said smugly, his expression quickly reverting back to its usual sarcastic grin, "you could always just take your _PDA_!" He and the rest of his group guffawed at the joke.

Tucker clenched his teeth and turned his face away towards his two friends, trying his best to ignore this new nuisance. Danny, however, was a little more upfront with the jock. "Hey Dash? Why don't you take your inflated head somewhere else? It's blocking the sun." He gestured at the shadow that Dash was casting over the three of them.

"Oh, haha, very funny," Dash sneered, his eyes flashing brightly. "Do you want a black eye for picture day, _runt_?"

Danny casually stood up, rolling his eyes, "Did you come over here for a reason? Because I'd like to get it over with so I can get back to studying."

Sam let out a derisive laugh as if to say, "Study! Haha, that's a good one!" and Danny sent her a sharp glance.

"Oh, I don't have time for you losers! Kwan, _you_ talk to them about it!" Dash shoved the pile of flyers into Kwan's chest before stalking off in the direction of the bleachers. Kwan, who hadn't quite gotten a firm hold on the papers before Dash let go, fumbled with them awkwardly as a couple of them fell down to the ground. He was certainly a little at a loss at his friend's suddenly storming off when before it looked like he had been about to punch Danny in the face. However, Danny, Sam, and Tucker definitely had no complaint with talking to Kwan instead of Dash. He had always been the nicer of the two anyways.

"Well that's funny," Danny stared after Dash's retreating form, smiling slightly, "He's getting better with controlling his fists?" He questioned Kwan, who rubbed the back of his neck in a confused way before straightening out the pile of papers he now held. Kwan looked around in surprise, finding that the rest of the A-List had followed after Dash. Now it was just him, Danny, Sam, and Tucker.

"I know... he's been acting kinda weird lately. It might be because Paulina dumped him last week though—" Kwan suddenly jumped and straightened up as though he'd just sat on a pin cushion, "Oh! Don't tell him I told you that..." the jock's face flushed slowly with embarrassment and guilt. Danny nodded with a passive expression, though on the inside he was smirking darkly.

"Ah, but I probably wouldn't read too much into it if I were you, Danny. He's probably just waiting until after school so he won't get in trouble..." Kwan said matter-of-factly.

Danny's smile died as he said, "Yeah, you're probably right." He inwardly groaned. Great; just what he needed at the moment! A little after lunch he had PE, and Ms. Tetslaff also had another sort of physical fitness test planned for them which would _surely _leave Danny feeling sore... Then, he'd have to deal with ghost patrol for the day, and then Dash was most likely going to beat him to a pulp again? Great... he couldn't wait!

Sam snatched a couple of the papers off of the ground before they could be blown away by the breeze. She turned one of the flyers over to read it; Danny and Tucker peered over her shoulder curiously.

"Er... _right_, well..." Kwan regained his composure, readjusting his letterman jacket while beginning to explain, "Both the boys' and girls' basketball teams are doing a fundraiser to help with the costs of repairing the gymnasium and some of the equipment because of the... you know..." Danny, Sam, and Tucker nodded in understanding; Melania had left quite a mark on the gym while trapping the Guys in White inside. The light fixtures were completely obliterated, the doors were dented and the locks were melted, the once polished wooden floors were scuffed and chewed up by ectoblasts... Kwan chuckled wanly before continuing, "Well, anyways, we're holding basketball games with the students' teams against the teachers on the courts out here. It's two dollars per person to watch and everyone's invited to come, so—"

"Okay, I'm not that much of a sports fan... but did you say it's the students versus the _teachers?_" Sam asked, a little more interestedly than she had meant it to be. She still wasn't really a big fan of Kwan's.

"Well, hehe, yeah! It's gonna be great!" Kwan chuckled, kicking at a tuft of grass as he heard Star yelling at him to hurry up from where the rest of the A-List had gone off to. "Yeah, well, hope to see you there!" He was already walking on his way over in the direction Dash had taken.

Once he had left, Tucker spoke, "Hmm. The boys' game is tomorrow night and the girls' is the day after. Are you going to go?" Tucker had taken the flyer from Sam and was reading the information.

"I don't know," Danny said uncertainly. "I mean, as fun as seeing Mr. Lancer playing basketball (and probably losing at it too) sounds, I'll probably be busy. You know, ghost hunting, studying, sleeping, whatever..." he paused as he heard the bell signaling the end of lunch before starting to head back indoors for class. The hallways were crowded with students on their way to class, so the going was slow at first for them.

"Probably not for me either then; I'm not that into sports anyway." Sam said, grunting as she accidentally walked into the person in front of her when they stopped suddenly. "...I hate it when people do that..." she mumbled as the three of them moved around the person. The crowd started to thin out further up the hall so they could move more freely.

As they reached Danny's locker they stopped; Sam turned around and leaned against the locker next to his as he opened it. She smiled deviously suddenly, causing Danny to look worriedly at her, "What?"

"So? You ready for PE after next period?"

Tucker groaned indignantly, "Ah, man! Sam, why'd you have to mention that?!" Sam laughed softly as Danny let a loud moan, slamming shut his locker after taking out his math textbook.

* * *

"Alright... I'm so tired... I think I'm about to pass out in midair..." Danny grumbled to himself, putting his white-gloved hands up to his head to massage his temples exhaustedly. It was later that day after school and he'd transformed in an alley to fly the rest of the way home. He was in no fit state to run away from Dash at that particular moment. The sooner he got home, the better, because the sooner he got home, the sooner he'd get to crash.

Even though it was a Friday and therefore the day was shorter than usual, Ms. Tetslaff had somehow found a way to still make the test as hard as possible. Danny was still sweating profusely in his human form. He was really thankful for having his cool ghost half to escape the heat.

"I'd better get a good grade for doing that... That obstacle course was even more brutal than last year's..."

However in actuality he had found it hard not just because he hadn't been preparing for it, but also because his old shoulder wound was bothering him all throughout the course. It was for the most part healed since it had been a couple weeks since he had gotten it and all that showed of it was a scar; this didn't really bother him, though. In fact, Danny had thought that it was all the way functional before. The muscles in his shoulder were just giving him a mild discomforted feeling with all of the activity. It was lucky though that it hadn't become injured again. _Ha... lucky that I didn't get tetanus when that ghost ran me through!_ Danny snorted slightly, rotating the shoulder slowly to see how it was doing at the moment. It was feeling back to normal again, but he figured that he'd better take it easy on it just to be safe.

"Yeah, I just hope that not too many ghosts will show up in the next few weeks..." Danny thought aloud, looking down at the buildings and streets below him and then raising up his gaze to monitor the air as well.

He was almost home... "And then I'll get to sleep in until noon tomorrow..." Danny closed his eyes in relief, savoring the idea of the bed that was waiting for him once he got home...

_**BANG!**_

"Ah!" Danny cried out as he was suddenly blasted sideways off course into the apartment building to the right of him. Right then his ghost sense went off, Danny growling as it did so, "Oh; _now _you tell me." Disgruntled, he shook his snowy white hair out of his eyes and straightened himself up, glaring up at his attacker.

"Skulker!" he growled.

The hunter, who was retracting the large gun with which he had attacked Danny back into his battle suit, gave him the usual predatory smile. "Why hello, whelp! It's been a while, no?" Skulker raised an eyebrow, drawing out another one of his painful-looking weapons—this time it was a long three-pronged javelin; the sharp ends gave off an electrical spark that danced threateningly between the prongs while Skulker's feral grin stretched even more across his metallic face. _Great..._ so he was after his pelt once again. When would it ever end?!

"Not long enough!" Danny replied, not wasting one more second in attacking his opponent; he flew directly at Skulker before he could react and delivered a well-aimed punch to his face.

Well, this was a little ill-timed—Danny coincidentally didn't have the Fenton Thermos on him at the moment.

Skulker grunted and staggered a little in the air, though not being knocked back too far by the blow. His grin had faltered somewhat, though it returned as he launched a net at the ghost boy. Danny flew upwards to evade it and gave a solid kick to the side of his head, which made him somersault in the air once as a gonglike sound loudly echoed around the neighborhood.

Danny shot several quick green blasts of energy at him, but Skulker turned intangible for the first couple and then flew upwards to evade the rest.

The hunter jabbed at Danny with the javelin, which the boy evaded at the last moment. However, it still managed to clip Danny's side. Danny let out a sharp exhale with a hiss, ignoring the scratch that was slowly oozing ectoplasm. Skulker's solid green eyes seemed to flash with pleasure at the start of this new fight. However, the expression was wiped off of the ghost's face at the hybrid's next question.

"Say, Skulker? Don't you have a gorilla to be studying?" Danny folded his arms loosely in front of him, tilting his head to the side with a complacent grin. He knew he'd struck a nerve with that one!

The ghost clenched his teeth as he angrily replied, "You'd better laugh it up while you still can, ghost child! We'll see just who's laughing once your pelt is hung on my wall!"

Skulker lunged at the boy, who had made the mistake of closing his eyes while chuckling to himself. He tackled Danny and pinned him to the side of the same building with which the hybrid had been knocked into just barely. Some of the residents had heard the commotion coming from right outside the building and were crowding over to the windows, peering outside curiously. Both of the ghosts were oblivious to the audience, which almost immediately backed away from their windows after realizing what was going on.

Skulker drew out a glowing green blade and swiped at Danny's neck. Danny reflexively turned intangible so the attack missed. The knife gouged out a huge chunk of the wall behind the young hybrid, getting slightly caught in the bricks. As the hunter withdrew the knife for another tactic the teen shoved him away using both of his feet. Danny immediately flew towards Skulker while he was still regaining his composure.

However, with one of his large metal hands the hunter grasped the teen's head directly around his face, hoisting him up to eyelevel while pulling out a small familiar looking device with two glowing green prongs out of the arm of his battle suit and aimed it at Danny's chest. Danny's eyes snapped open at this unexpected turn of events and let out a cry of surprise, which came out muffled since Skulker's hand now covered his mouth. Both of his hands latched onto Skulker's arm instinctively; he could barely see through the hunter's fingers and what was worse was that the more he struggled, the more Skulker added pressure to his head, almost to the point that Danny felt like his head was about to be crushed.

Danny shouted out again, this time questioningly, but Skulker neither understood nor cared what the hybrid was trying to ask him; with the device in his free hand he started to approach Danny, who started struggling once again, repeatedly lashing out with his legs and trying to kick Skulker away. But, his efforts were fruitless, seeing as Skulker's arm was long enough to keep Danny's attacks from reaching him. The white-haired teenager seemed to suddenly remember that he also had arms as well as legs and let go of Skulker's arm, charging up an ectoblast and releasing it into his opponent's chest.

Skulker abruptly let go of Danny's face as he was blasted backwards several feet. The halfa gasped in relief at his release, panting heavily as he wiped off a bead of sweat. "Wha... what are you doing wi... with that?" he pointed faintly at the Plasmius Maximus still sticking out of the hunter's arm, although he had a hunch. It was then confirmed as Skulker smiled.

"Oh, this?" he gestured at the weapon with his other hand. "Just another upgrade for my battle armor that my employer helped with. Such a wonderful device, is it not, whelp?"

_Oh, yeah... __**marvelous**__... _Danny thought sarcastically, though only glaring weakly in response at Skulker. First, Vlad steals the Infi-Map, then he almost gets Sam killed, _and then _he decides to help make Skulker's suit even more dangerous... for Danny, at least! He was getting more and more ticked off at Plasmius with each passing hour!

Danny's thoughts started racing as Skulker appeared to be getting ready to attack again. He needed to get away! He was absolutely exhausted already and probably couldn't keep up this fight much longer. And he didn't have Tucker to hack into Skulker's systems this time, either!

He was wondering what he was going to do, but it turned out that he didn't have to anything at all. The hunter thrust the Plasmius Maximus into Danny's chest, causing that same electrocuting sensation he knew well. Danny cried out in pain as he was forced back into his human form; Skulker tackled him again to the pavement twenty feet below. The green-eyed hunter laughed, "_Now _let's see you defend yourself, child!"

He took his knife back out again, getting ready to strike; Danny closed his eyes, bracing himself for the blow—but it never came. Instead, a loud explosion sounded from nearby and suddenly Skulker's weight was blasted off of him. Danny opened his eyes, looking up incredulously for whoever had saved him.

"**YOU!**" Danny cringed instinctively at the sound of the absolutely seething voice, but then relaxed once he remembered that he wasn't in danger as long as he was in this form.

A familiar red-clad girl had arrived on the scene. "_Val-_?! I mean... help! A ghost!" Danny yelled.

He pointed over at Skulker, who was currently peeling himself away from the wall he had been blasted into.

Valerie Gray swooped down upon the ghost, "You must either be really brave or really dumb to come back here! You're going down!" It seemed that she still remembered the incident where Skulker had tried to make game out of her because she definitely recognized this particular ghost!

Danny stood up shakily as he watched the scene unfold before him, starting to back away from the fight. It was one of those times where he was glad to see that Valerie was in the ghost-hunting mood.

"Thank you Valerie!" Danny whispered thankfully as he began jogging down an alley to get back on the correct path towards home—which _should've_ been just through this alleyway and then across the street...

He cringed as he heard a particularly loud blast from back in the street; boy... on second thought he was convinced that Skulker had done him a kindness by short-circuiting his powers... Valerie really looked like she wasn't in the mood to be messed around with.

Not that he could blame her. She'd been away for a couple weeks and what had she come back to? The whole town was in ruins from a powerful ghost attack and she was determined to make up for her absence. Valerie was absolutely furious that it had happened. In her mind she was the only thing keeping the ghosts from taking control of the city and Melania Dark had only proved it more to her. Danny rolled his eyes; and now Valerie was even more hostile. Yes, Danny was glad that he hadn't been in ghost mode while she had shown up; if this was what she was doing to Skulker, he didn't want to know what she would do to Phantom... But, what was done was done, and things definitely were back in the swing of things.

"And I hope it can manage to stay that way for at _least _a couple weeks..." Danny whispered calmly, sighing with relief as he walked in the door to Fenton Works.

However, what he saw didn't exactly comply with his wishes...

* * *

**Er... right. Cliffhanger! *grins* Sorry about that. But, I promise I'll update as soon as possible...**

Muses: *roll eyes*


	3. Chapter Two: Misfortune

**Alrighty... this chapter was... really fun to write! For me, at least. I'm not so sure how my two Danny muses are feeling at the moment though.**

Fun Danny:...

Super Danny:...

**Well, at least Super Danny hasn't destroyed the computer yet... that's always a good sign. Yes, well, it definitely was pretty fun… even though it took a while because school's started up again for me. **

**Well, let's get this show on the road! Here's chapter two of PWF! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. Or Harry Potter (there's a really subtle reference hidden somewhere in there; let's see if you can find it…;D).**

* * *

**Chapter Two  
****Misfortune**

"Wha...?" Danny began to speak, but he was so bewildered he couldn't even finish a single word. He stood frozen in the doorway, gaping as his eyes panned the room and slowly soaked in the scene before him—which was quite hard to process at first.

The whole living room was a mess first of all! It was as if a tornado had torn apart the room. The couch was tipped over, pictures that had been hanging on the walls previously had fallen to the ground, glass cracked with shards scattered across the floor. The few that remained where they had been before were hung lopsided and uneven. There was an odd scent similar to barbeque mixed with burning rubber on the air; the carpet was also singed, which might've been one of the reasons for the smell. In fact, there were scorch-marks all over the place; on the walls, the furniture, even the ceiling had two or three of the softball-sized blackened spots. Danny leaned inwards, though his hand hadn't even left the doorknob yet. Even from this spot by the front door he could see into the kitchen as well, which wasn't quite as bad as the living room but all of the cupboards were all the way opened and had the remnants of some of the dishes strewn across the floor.

"Ah, hello Daniel," Danny blinked, only with the sound of Vlad's voice just barely realizing that the man was also present.

The billionaire had been helping his mother set the couch upright again and noticed the teenager's entrance first, since Maddie had her back to the door. The teen only nodded his head once in slight acknowledgment at the older hybrid before scanning the room once more; he was quite used to these visits by Vlad now. However, in spite of this fact he was already having an extremely uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't really like the idea that his archenemy was there at this time. It couldn't mean anything good; that was for sure...

"Hey, Danny..." Maddie turned around and smiled slightly at her son's arrival, though she maintained her confused expression as she too was surveying the scene as if she had missed something as well. After a moment though that confusion turned to concern, "What's that on your face? Did you get hurt?"

Danny's hand went slowly up to his face to feel it, keeping his wary eyes on Vlad, who raised an eyebrow at the boy with a small enigmatic smile. After one light prod to his cheek he found out what had caught his mom's eye. Darn it! "Oh... I, uh..." A bruise was starting to form on his cheek where Skulker's metal thumb had been digging into the skin. He could guess that there were also four more of them framing his face. _Come on, Fenton... say something! _"It's nothing."

"Are you sure?" Maddie asked uncertainly.

"Yeah. I'm sure," he said somewhat evasively, "What _happened?_" he suddenly veered off-subject, holding out both arms to gesture at the mess, kicking some of the rubble with his foot as he finally decided to enter the house. He slowly closed the door behind him, awaiting the answer.

Maddie sighed at the question; however, all of them were momentarily distracted as Jack entered the room from the lab down below.

"Alright Maddie, V-Man, you might want to come down and see this. It's really... Oh, hi son! You alright? You look terrible!"

Danny's cheeks flushed as he flattened his messy hair, which was now frizzy and sticking up every which way from his powers being short-circuited. Speaking of which, he hoped that this little inconvenience wouldn't come back to haunt him should his parents leave Danny and Vlad alone and have this visit from the elder halfa turn sour... Because for the next two hours and fifty-two minutes, he had no way to defend himself from that jerk! "Yes, I'm okay..." the teen sighed with a slightly exasperated edge to it; however, his father just continued on, having not noticed the tone.

"Hehe, we were just about to start explaining what happened to Vladdie here. He just got here too!"

"Yes, we're so sorry for the mess... it's quite the story, hehe," Maddie chuckled, embarrassed. She was still holding onto the armrest of the couch with both hands quite firmly, though her fingers were now fidgeting uncomfortably.

"Oh, I believe it," Vlad said, looking around the messy room; this almost surprised Danny, since the man had been acting a little more silent than usual this time around. His voice sounded hoarse and slightly stuffy. Danny unconsciously smirked at this, earning a heated glare from the man when the teen's parents' backs were turned. It seemed that he had developed a cold from being frozen by Frostbite the day before. Vlad coughed, clearing his throat loudly since the slightly smoky air was irritating his sensitive throat.

Danny looked around the room one more time, "So, was it another ghost attack?"

"We _guess_ so..." Jack mumbled, pouting as he folded his arms. His mood now resembled that of a child who had just been told that Christmas had been canceled.

"What do you mean?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

Maddie shrugged, "Well, we didn't really _see _what happened. It was just a couple minutes before Vlad showed up. Jazz had gotten home, but she left right after—"

"Yeah, she said somethin' about going to the library for helping someone with their homework. What was his name again? Flash?" Jack scratched his head, looking up at the ceiling as he tried to remember.

"Dash..." Danny muttered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Honestly, why was his sister still giving tutoring sessions to that jerk? All he ever did was try to flirt with her all that time! Ah, Jazz... always too persistent to see that her thesis was wrong and that the airhead really _was _untutorable!

"Yeah, _that's _it!" Jack said, snapping his fingers.

"Anyways, after she left everything was just fine. Nothing strange at all at first; we were both down in the lab making adjustments on some equipment when all of a sudden the security system went off! It was reading that several ghosts were trying to break through the Ghost Portal again and that one was coming in through the front door towards the lab! But... then after that it gets... a little fuzzy..." Maddie leaned against the wall, seemingly exhausted. She held a hand up to her head as she tried to remember. "Before we saw what was coming though... everything went dead silent and suddenly the temperature started rising! Then... and then I... remember... a kind of ringing in my ears... and then some kind of a song..." Maddie paused a lot, that confused expression plastered across her face as she trailed off.

"What did it sound like?" Vlad asked, one of those unreadable expressions on his face. His eyes were roving around the scene, scanning for clues it seemed.

Danny was also staring indifferently into space; he was trying to piece together some kind of explanation for this. _A song, huh? Maybe Ember up to her old tricks again? Haven't heard from her in a while... _he thought. That could very well have been it... it certainly was within her capacities to pull a cheap stunt like knocking the ghost hunters out of commission before sabotaging the house in her form of revenge. But it probably depended on the _type _of song. After all, he didn't want to forget the fact that Plasmius was at the scene of the crime!

Jack rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well, it was soft... really relaxing and sad-sounding!" He frowned suddenly, "Why that little! When I get my hands on whatever spook did this I'm gonna rip it apart molecule by molecule!" he gestured around at the damage that had been inflicted on the house.

"Well, I think it sounded something like this," Maddie hummed a low and slow-paced eight-note melody, tapping the beat steadily with a foot.

"Yes, that is quite strange..." Vlad murmured after several moments of pondering, finally seeming to snap out of his nearly trance-like state. However, Danny detected a new edge in the billionaire's voice; whether it was with realization, intrigue, or something else he couldn't quite tell. He didn't really like the tone of it though. It made the man sound like he knew more than he was letting on in front of his old college friends. "And neither of you remember anything after that?"

"No, we both passed out after that. It's power was too strong…" she abruptly paused to yawn widely.

It was also then that Danny and Vlad noticed the tiring aura that was still on the air. Apparently the ghost's powers were still lingering because they realized that their energy too was draining. But, in a way it felt nice since it was a feeling of warmth and slight light-headedness. Danny was feeling like he was being tortured—he was fighting the urge to just plop down on the couch, regardless of the damage on it, and just sleep!

"It relaxed us and lulled us to sleep... for a couple minutes at most, I guess, because the next thing we knew, you'd come in and woken us up—to _this_." Maddie bitterly looked around the room.

Which brought the question up again. What _was _Vlad actually doing here? By now Danny was sure this wasn't just a coincidence anymore. Danny's head snapped towards the man suddenly. Vlad saw the intense, not-so-subtle stare and got the gist of what the young hybrid was demanding: _Explain yourself._

"Yes... _really _strange... in fact, it's even more so considering what happened at my residence only several minutes before I'd come here," Vlad spoke louder suddenly. The other three looked at him questioningly, Danny's firm expression faltering slightly. "I had come home to find my private study in ruins as well..."

"Really...?" Maddie said with a great amount of interest in her tone.

"Whoa, V-Man! Do you know...?" Jack began to ask but trailed off, his eyes widened in shock.

The older halfa calmly finished his former friend's question, "What ghost did it? I'm not absolutely certain yet, but... I have my suspicions." In a subtle movement that went unnoticed by Jack and Maddie, Vlad's gaze moved back to Danny.

Danny couldn't fail to notice the implication; he sent the man an indignant glare as his parents exchanged glances. What? He thought that _he _did it?!

"Do you think it was Phantom?" Maddie asked.

"Perhaps..." Vlad nodded, "However, as soon as I saw what had happened I tried to contact you two—since you would probably have been able to help me track the ghost that did it down. But there was no answer on the phone so I came over to see if everything was alright. Now here we are..." he chuckled lightly. "But I don't really believe that the ghost that attacked your home is the same one that visited mine. There were no… side effects that occurred while being in my study, unlike what seems to be the case here." he said, the others understanding that he was referring to the induced drowsiness.

"Speaking of which..." Danny stretched slowly, letting out a tired groan. "Can we go out and get a breath of fresh air? I think that if I stay in here for one more minute I'll pass out too; I had a long day at school..."

Maddie consented, "Yeah, I think that would be a good idea," They went outside to stand on the porch as she continued, "Who _knows _if those fumes could be toxic or not?"

"Ah, much better..." Jack took in a deep breath of fresh air, his mood brightening again. It seemed that a weight had been lifted from everyone's shoulders and that they felt suddenly well-rested.

"I wonder what that ghost really wanted..." Danny wondered out loud with a suspicious tone. "It doesn't really make sense for a ghost with that power to want to use them just to wreck somebody's house..."

"You're telling me! I wouldn't be surprised if it _did _have anything to do with what went on at Vlad's!" Jack declared. "Say, Vlad? Do you want Maddie and me to come over to investigate some time? If we can manage to pick up its ectosignature, we'll be able to track that ghost down n'—"

"Oh, but Jack," Maddie interjected awkwardly, putting a hand on his shoulder in a 'slow down' type of gesture, "Aren't you forgetting the IAGH commission?" When Jack gave his wife a nonplussed look, she prompted him further, "The one we were supposed to leave for the day after tomorrow?"

Jack's smile faded to a sheepish grin, "Oh, yeah…. Almost forgot!"

Danny blinked, his mind still a bit preoccupied so he didn't really process the acronym, "Wait, what?"

"The International Association of Ghost Hunters, Danny! You've forgotten already?" Maddie explained, raising an eyebrow at him curiously.

"Oh," Danny stated. "Yeah…. Now I remember." How could he forget?! His parents had been going _on _and _on _about this for weeks now! Almost nonstop, in fact. Danny hadn't really heard a lot of the details, but from what he _had_ heard from the ghost hunters, this was a top-notch group that had anything to do with ghosts—anything from research to inventing weapons and fighting them; it's members were the best of the best from all over the globe. It was an honor to even be _considered _for a place in it, not to mention be accepted into it! At least, that's what his parents said. Well, soon after Danny had gotten back to Amity Park Jack and Maddie had gotten a call from IAGH's headquarters saying that there were several openings available and that they were being considered for membership. The only thing was that they had to _prove _that they were worthy of this elite ghost-fighting group; and they explained that to do so that it meant a month out of the country at their training facility, training and showing their skills. They were very picky, so both Jack and Maddie had been stressing about this opportunity to let the world know of their talents.

Vlad clasped his hands together in front of him casually, tilting his head to the side with another small smile, "Oh? Are you going out of town?" he asked lightly.

"Yup! We're leaving for the UK first thing day after tomorrow! That group offered us a position if we meet their requirements!" Jack happily said. "But that shouldn't be too big a deal; I mean, once they take a look at our inventions, that membership will be as good as ours! Right, Maddie?" Maddie nodded, though something about the way she did so showed that something was troubling her as well.

"Yes, it may just be the biggest moment of our career! It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"Why, that's great! Congratulations!" Vlad grinned genially. His congested voice now sounded like it was brimming with a sinister sort of excitement.

"I know, right? It's gonna be great! While we're there, I hope we get a chance to check out some of the haunted places there! There are some really cool cases over there; ooh, like the Shrieking Shack! I hear that it's the most haunted place in Britain! It'll be sooo cool!" Jack said as Vlad nodded in agreement.

_Something is… off—about this. _Danny slowly and jerkily thought, warily eyeing the billionaire's actions. That foreboding feeling he'd been feeling since he'd gotten home had increased to the point that it was now waving a red flag in his head, practically screaming at him. _Why's he all of a sudden so… happy? Does he know something I don't know? _Probably.

"But, I'm kind of worried," Maddie glanced back at the front door of Fenton Works, "I mean, we _are _leaving for a month and… what with the house being the way it is now, I'm kind of reluctant to leave Danny and Jazz _in _it. It wouldn't be the best idea…"

Jack bit his lip, "Yeah… maybe they can stay at one of their friend's houses? Maybe…"

Vlad opened and closed his mouth a couple times while the two ghost hunters were talking. He raised both his eyebrows, "Well, I'd be more than happy to let Daniel and Jasmine stay with _me_…"

Oh. No. _No!_ That conniving snake! So _that's _what he had come over for! Danny bit his tongue extra hard to keep himself from yelling out loud. However, his muscles had visibly tensed, so it was made clear to his elder rival that he was enraged.

"Really? You'd do that?" Maddie asked, almost stunned.

"Of course, Maddie," Vlad nodded. "And in fact, you and Jack can come stay for the last day you'll be here in Amity Park while repairs can be made on your house."

"Oh, thank you! You are a lifesaver, Vlad!"

"Uh…" Danny finally managed to find his tongue. "Thank you for the, uh… offer, but… are you sure? I mean, I'm sure that you would be, uh… _busy_—being mayor and all…"

But all Vlad did in response to this masked warning was chuckle lightly, "Oh, no worries, Daniel; I'm more than willing! But thank you for your concern."

Danny folded his arms in front of him, silently fuming. However much it pained him, he had to remember who was also present and also his current condition. He couldn't very well do anything about it just yet.

"Well, then, I guess we might just be able to look into what ghost destroyed your study after all!" Maddie chuckled. "And in that case, I guess we'd better let Jazz know what happened. Oh, and Jack?"

"Yeah, Maddie?"

"Can you go and see if you can salvage any of the ghost equipment? I'll be calling Jazz…" Maddie said.

"Yep, will do Maddie!" the orange-jumpsuited man replied with gusto.

Maddie turned to Vlad and Danny, "You two can wait out here; we'll just be a minute." They both nodded in response as the two ghost-hunters reentered the building.

Danny didn't even hesitate to declare his thoughts to the man, "You're up to something."

Vlad smiled fondly as he raised an amused eyebrow at the boy, "Really? You think so?" But Danny could see right through the man's calm demeanor.

"No, I don't _think _so," Danny shook his head slightly, brushing his hair out of his eyes as a breeze came along.

"Oh? Now you don't? Come now, Daniel. You'd better make up your mind," Vlad said teasingly. As Danny growled up at him, the man continued, "After all, the last time you suspected that I was _up to something,_" his expression soured and the smile on his face suddenly looked very unpleasant, "that meant several weeks of grief for the _both _of us. Now, if _I _were you, I would want to think _very carefully _before coming to conclusions…" he lowered his voice to a whisper, nodding slowly with this last statement.

"Like I said," Danny narrowed his eyes, "I don't _think _you are up to something. I _know _you are; and that's what is different this time around…. And if _I _were you, I'd just spit out whatever it is that you want right now!"

Vlad leaned down to Danny's eye-level. "Okay, you want to know what I want? What I want to know is why you destroyed my house!" he snapped.

"I—did—not—do—it." Danny growled.

"Of course you didn't." Vlad's voice now had a hint of a complacent tone in it.

"I mean it! I have no idea what happened to your stupid study!" Danny indignantly balled his hands into fists.

The elder hybrid's eyes flashed red, saying, "I suggest that you stop trying my patience," Danny involuntarily flinched, causing the man to chuckle after his eyes returned to their original blue hue. His attitude had suddenly swung from anger to amusement, "I see that you ran into—"

"Your crazy hunter henchman. Yes." Danny's eyes were now half-open. The man shrugged, tilting his head to the side as he did so.

Just then Maddie and Jack came outside once again, both of them carrying several ghost-hunting instruments. Maddie shifted the Fenton Finder in her grasp so it was cradled in the crook of her arm so she could more easily carry the Thermos, Specter Deflector, and arrangement of guns in her hands. Apparently a decent amount of the weapons had survived the ghost attack. "Okay, Jazz says that she changed her mind about tutoring and is coming to Vlad's house now…" she said.

Danny slightly chuckled, even though there wasn't really anything funny about this particular situation. Well, it was apparent that his sister wasn't anymore happy about it than he was.

"Splendid," Vlad clasped his hands together, straightening up. "Shall we?"

Danny stuffed his hands into his pockets, forcing his gaze down so his parents couldn't see the miserable expression on his face.

_Joy…_


	4. Chapter Three: Keeping Close

Castor: Welcome, everyone!

Pollux: Yup, we were glad to hear all your thoughts on the last chapter!

**Yes, we all appreciated your input! We hope that you enjoy this one as well! This is going to be some more plot building, but it's going to be a lot like a roller-coaster; the plot building'll get us to the top of the hill, and then comes the fun! I definitely promise that once things get rolling, they'll get rolling fast! Also, once things get rolling is probably when all these loose ends'll be tied up. As usual, I'm looking forward to what you have to say, so tell me what you think! Any advice or anything of the sort is always welcome!**

**Alright! So here is the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom; the idea of the ecto-energy scale belongs to Pearl and Truephan! ^^**

* * *

**Chapter Three  
****Keeping Close**

"Okay, so what do you think that fruit loop is doing _this _time?!" Jazz hissed under her breath. She and Danny had managed to slip away into the dimly-lit hall several minutes previously while their parents and Vlad were taking a look at the study. And boy... she wasn't happy.

Danny exhaled heavily and doggedly, shaking his head as his eyes glued themselves to the floor, "Pfft; as if I know. I told you everything that I could make of it—and did I mention that he thinks that _I _did _that_?!" He sharply jabbed his thumb in the direction of the end of the hall, where the door to the mayor's study was located. Well, the place definitely was a mess sure enough. Whole bookcases were knocked over, shelves in pieces scattered across the floor along with its contents. And whatever did happen to it, it certainly was at least fairly recent at that, since a lot of the piles of books were still sending up small clouds of odd light grayish-colored smoke. Danny folded his arms in front of him, at the same time frowning crossly.

"You didn't, did you?" Jazz blurted out, her eyes widening slightly in concern.

"What? No! Of course I didn't!" Danny indignantly whispered back at her.

Jazz sighed, though it was in slight relief, "Sorry; I just had to ask."

"Oh, of course you did... You can relax; I didn't do it…. Although the jerk totally deserved it." Danny suddenly muttered under his breath.

His older sister skeptically stared at him after hearing this statement, "You know," she said matter-of-factly, "When you say stuff like that it makes it harder for me to believe you," Amused, she smiled and rolled her eyes.

"What?" Danny said, holding out his hands now with a wide smile across his face. "I'm just saying it's true! And don't you deny it!" Jazz's eyebrows raised even more, almost to the point that they disappeared beneath her red hair. "Really. I didn't do it. But, I _would_ like to know who did—so I can give whoever it was a high five!"

"Yeah, I know; but you know, even _if _you didn't do it, Vlad seems to think otherwise. And that's not good." she said, choosing to ignore the ending of what her younger brother said.

The halfa's smile fell though as he growled, "Yeah, he thinks I did it and is probably going to beat me to a pulp once Mom and Dad are gone," he casually ended the sentence before continuing on in his previous frustrated tone, "Anyways, at least, that's what he's made clear to me. But, who knows if that's all that he's _thinking_?! Or even if he's _thinking_ that at all!" He threw his hands up in the air, his tone quickly starting rise from paranoia. After all, it could have all just been some scheme of his and he wrecked the study himself; it possibly could have been an attempt to frame him or something like that! Not that it would have much effect—his parents already hated his ghost half—with a passion.

"Yeah, but I also mean what is he thinking in having us stay here for a whole month?" Jazz furrowed her eyebrows, folding her arms.

Danny raised his gaze up to meet his older sister's and exclaimed loudly with disgust, "Well, maybe he's just pouncing on his opportunity to ruin my life some more! I don't know!"

"Ssh!" Jazz raised a finger up to her lips, her eyes darting warily towards the end of the hall. Danny abruptly bit his bottom lip, mentally smacking himself in the face for letting himself get so loud. However, when they saw that the yell apparently hadn't been noticed by any of the three people on the other side of the door, the two teenagers looked back to each other, Jazz sternly and Danny sheepishly. "I think it'd probably be best if we moved this conversation somewhere else." the elder of the two softly stated after a moment of silence.

"Mm-hmm... that would probably be a good idea..." Danny replied as the two of them started slowly heading down the hall until they rounded the corner and stood on the other side of an almost authentic-looking suit of armor, which was reflecting the torchlight that was just above it.

"Anyways, I don't know what goes on in that insane mind of his! It's probably his twisted form of 'revenge' for his stupid study." Danny finished in a quiet hiss, even though at their new location he didn't think that anyone would be able to hear them talking.

After peering around the corner to double-check that they were out of earshot of the study, Jazz turned back towards her brother. "Well, of course Vlad's taking advantage of the situation; that much is obvious, Danny. But I think it just might be more than a coincidence that he came over at this particular time. Weren't you saying that he was acting like he knew more than he was letting on?"

"Yes... I did." Danny nodded, processing what the red-head was saying to him as he was slowly coming to the same conclusion that she was conveying.

"Well, I think it's clear that he knew about that trip already. I think that he might even be responsible for it."

"Like... like the whole Dalv science convention thing?" Danny looked up wearily at the suit of armor that they were concealed behind, slowly prodding the edge of the sword in its grasp as if testing the sharpness of it. He let out a low whistle as it made a small slice on the tip of his finger.

"Maybe. But I'm not sure if that'll mean Mom and Dad'll be stranded in the middle of nowhere this time." Jazz managed to force out a chuckle. She rolled her eyes at the mentioning of the particular incident that Danny had previously told her about.

A smile flickered across Danny's face at the thought of his dad 'roughing it in the woods,' "Hehe, yeah," but that smile was suddenly wiped off of his face. "Then that means that Vlad must've been the one who wrecked _our _house... That jerk... Probably wanted us to have no other choice but to have to stay with him! Why, once Mom and Dad aren't in the surrounding area, he's getting it!" he slowly clenched his right hand into a fist, his knuckles cracking softly.

Jazz grimaced, slightly cringing at her brother's tone, "Just don't push him too much, Danny. Considering the fact that our parents just agreed to leave us with him for a month, I don't think it'd be a really good idea to try his patience while they aren't around—or at all for that matter!" she corrected herself hastily. Wasn't the situation already bad enough? She didn't want her brother getting beaten to a pulp by their parents' old college pal as well as having to endure an entire month with him.

"Yeah, I know what you mean..." Danny muttered irritably. A whole month at the mercy of Vlad Plasmius! However much it pained him to come to this conclusion, it definitely wouldn't make matters any better if he crossed the man in any way—not that the billionaire would make things any good in the first place. But, Danny casually voiced the vain hope that had been on his mind. "What do you think the chances are that Mom and Dad will change their minds?" his tone was thoughtful as he leaned his back against the wall behind him.

"Not very likely, Danny. You know how much Dad trusts him! And Mom may not like him _that _much, but after the Ghost King attack—and his daughter..." Jazz leaned back against the wall, glancing down at her shoes. Danny flashed the floor a heated glare as he heard her continue on. "Well, she's got the idea in her head that he's saved your life twice now. And, then that'll raise the question of why we don't want to stay with him if he's such a great guy; and that's _if _we can talk to them in private in the first place! That's going to be hard with Vlad breathing down all our necks all the time! I don't know about you, but even if we could talk to them about it, I don't want to have to explain that."

"Mm, that's just what I was thinking too. Well, hypothetically speaking of course, what if I _could_ get them tochange their minds?" Danny raised an eyebrow slightly, a conspicuous rebellious edge now seeping into his voice. The torchlight lit up half of his face while the rest was shadowed, which made his expression look a little more mysterious than he probably intended it to be in the first place.

"What do you mean?" Jazz asked slowly, narrowing her eyes. Something about the question and how Danny phrased it just screamed that something mischievous was cooking in that mind of his.

All Danny did was smile at this question; if he had had his powers back at that moment his eyes probably would have been glowing a vibrant green. This made Jazz shake her head slowly in exasperation as soon as she realized what he was thinking. "No, Danny. You're not going to overshadow them."

"Why not?" he defiantly crossed his arms in front of him.

"Because you know it won't work! Have you forgotten already that something like that won't shake Vlad off that easy? He'd know it was you!"

Danny sighed sadly and heavily as his grin faded, "Yeah, I know, I know... You can't blame me for trying, though,"

Jazz placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look back up at her. Danny was surprised to see that Jazz had a small smile on her face. "Well, look at it this way, Danny," she said matter-of-factly, raising up a hand and tilting her head upward slightly. "At least this way we'll be able to figure out what he's up to. It'd be much easier to find out if we are staying with him." She gave her brother a sly wink, which looked strange on her face for some reason.

His grin slowly started to spread across his face once again, "Hehe, yes... that's at least one plus to the whole situation. But that doesn't mean that I'm any happier about it."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Jazz said.

"Speaking of telling," Danny sighed, "I'm probably going to have to call Sam and Tuck about it. They'd definitely want to know about _this_."

"I agree, that would probably be best." Jazz nodded in consent.

"So, how did _Dash _react when you had to cut tutoring short?" Danny changed the subject. He wasn't really asking out of curiosity; he just wanted to know what mood the jock was in—just so he could prepare for the future. But, knowing Dash, he was probably going to end up blaming him—that wouldn't be much of a surprise—and take it out on him as well.

Jazz shrugged indifferently, "I wouldn't know, he sort of canceled on me before I got Mom's call, I guess,"

"Really...?" Danny was shocked to say the least. His eyes widened, staring at Jazz with a bewildered expression.

"Really," Jazz confirmed, unfolding her arms and straightening up from her leaning position before smoothing out a couple wrinkles in her black sweater. "I was on my way when I saw him running down the street in the other direction. I got his attention and asked him if he wanted a ride, but he said that he couldn't today, was too busy with other things." And the way he said it was just plain weird; it was like it wasn't even him who was speaking. However, Jazz just left it at that.

However, Danny could already tell something was up, so he rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. After all, he's been acting weird lately. I would know! He even forgot that he was going to beat me up after school today!"

"Do you know why?" Jazz questioned him.

"Kwan said it was because Paulina dumped him. Maybe because he kept flirting with other girls..." this time Jazz rolled her eyes.

"Maybe so, but I'm not sure if that would be enough to make him act _this _bad." Jazz replied.

Danny shrugged, "Oh well. I mean, he'll get over it. Oh, and Jazz? Please don't tell him I told you that. Then he'll have both mine _and _Kwan's head!"

"Don't worry, my lips are sealed," Jazz replied, chuckling mildly. "Do you want to head down to the screening room or something? I think that they're going to be in there for a while." Vlad had suggested that they could go down there to watch a movie since they probably wouldn't want to stay while they investigated. But, at first the two of them had adamantly refused, both wanting to stay just to... well, just to supervise the scene.

"Sure," Danny caved in and the both of them started down the hall they were in towards the staircase at the end of it.

"But do you think that maybe now would be a good time to... you know... look around and try to find out what he's doing?" Jazz asked softly by instinct.

"Maybe in a little bit... you never know when he's going to be keeping an eye on us..." Danny whispered, casting suspicious eyes around him as they reached the end of the hall and began to descend the flight of stairs.

"Why? He's not going to be spying on us right now. He's with Mom and Dad right now."

"Not necessarily..." Danny enigmatically said a little louder before quieting down suddenly once again. "After all, the man was watching us like a hawk back there in the study. I don't think it's safe to just yet."

"Yeah, now that you say it I think that you're right... We'll need to lower his guard before we start trying to figure things out." Jazz muttered.

_Heh... that's easier said than done,_ Danny thought. He just hoped that everything would work out smoothly—not that it most likely would. Of course, he'd eventually find a way to outfox Plasmius one way or another, and he _would _figure out what he was up to and more importantly stop it before he got the chance to carry out his plans. And now he was in a way sort of glad that Vlad had made it _so _much easier to tell that he was up to something. At least Danny now had a heads up and wasn't unsuspecting anymore; and at least with his parents leaving for the month that would make it easier to search for clues, since he wouldn't have to worry about secrets being blown. It would just be him, Jazz, and Vlad for a whole month... And while that fact was still a dangerous prospect to Danny, he felt slightly relieved about it. Yes, the whole thing was much easier to deal with this way; well, as easy as it could get when you were trying to outsmart the man. After all, this _was _Vlad Masters they were talking about—and that automatically made things complicated. This wasn't just another careless ghost that Danny had to deal with on a regular basis; Plasmius wasn't really known to act before devoting a whole lot of thought into his scheming. To him, everything was just a metaphorical chess game. He considered every possibility and strategically carried out his plans without flaw. _Yup… it's definitely not going to be as simple as I'd hoped… but __**somehow **__I'll do it._

Because you know what they say about keeping your friends close but your enemies closer...

* * *

"Well, I don't know what to say, Vlad. I'm still not sure what exactly happened, but I'm getting really strong levels of ecto-energy here..." Jack called, looking up from the high-pitched beeping device in his hand. He turned away slightly from the smoking pile of destroyed books he had been hovering over previously. His eyebrows were creased in puzzlement as he glanced back down to the really odd readings that the apparatus was displaying.

"Me too," Maddie called back. "And it sure is strong but it's also really strange... it seems like it's a really _unstable_ kind of signature—"

"Is that so?" Vlad couldn't help it when a suspicious tone had slipped out in the question as he leaned over Maddie's shoulder to catch a glimpse of her readings. Lost in his own thoughts, he didn't notice as she cast him a wary eye and shifted her footing slightly so there was a little more space that separated them.

She gestured at the small screen of her gadget. "Yes, it's all over the place on the scale," There were lines moving rapidly across the screen in a way that was similar to that of a seismograph, at some points an almost flat line but the next moment skyrocketing into steep jagged lines before calming down once more. "I'm reading as high as a level nine, as low as a level three, and also everything in between."

Jack moved over to where the other two were. "That's not normal, is it, Maddie?" he asked curiously.

"Well, I only know of one ghost that it _could _fit... and that would be Phantom. I know that his signature is unstable, but I don't think that it's quite as inconsistent as this," she replied, rubbing her chin. "I mean, with this one the readings are nearly constantly changing; and that's not normal for a ghost—in normal circumstances. I think something must have been wrong with this ghost..."

"What do you think was the case?" Vlad asked, raising an eyebrow as his eyes aimlessly wandered around his private study. He was still quite skeptical even with Maddie's theory, since quite frankly he knew of no ghost that would have the audacity to trash his house except Daniel. However, he supposed that it could have been a possibility that it wasn't the younger halfa. But he wouldn't take anything for granted, especially when the one thing that he would be relying on would have been one of Jack Fenton's erratic contraptions.

"I don't know... maybe injured. Severely injured at that." Maddie added when she took another look at the seismograph-like object.

The female ghost hunter grimaced and held up a hand to cover her nose like she had finally given in to the urge. The other two had noticed the smell too in only a matter of minutes after they had entered the spacious room: sulfur. At first the rotten-egg-like smell hadn't really been that noticeable but it was there all the same. But, now that they'd been in the room for maybe around half an hour the smell had increased to the point that it was now making them queasy.

"Hmm..." Jack held a hand over his mouth, his face having a slight shiny pallor to it. At this point his appetite was definitely gone. "But I don't see any ectoplasm anywhere, Mads."

Maddie shrugged, "Oh, I'm not sure... just not sure... I think I'm going to be sick." She said disgustedly. Jack put an arm around her shoulders as they headed out of the double doors into the hallway.

"Me too..." Vlad muttered and almost spat under his breath.

* * *

"_So let me get this straight... Your house was trashed by Vlad Masters right before you got home from a fight with Skulker... and then he accused you of trashing his private study... and now you have to spend a month with him?_" Tucker asked blankly over the phone.

"Well, I'm still not sure if it was him who destroyed my house or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did. But yeah, that's basically the idea." Danny leaned back against the plush pillows of the queen-sized bed in the guest room he now occupied, stretching his legs out over the bedspread casually. It was now late that evening—around 10:30, and he was already feeling exhausted after just one afternoon with that fruit loop. He'd only just gotten a hold of Tucker since he'd been busy until then.

"_...I don't get it,_" Tucker said after a few seconds of silence.

"You don't get what?" Danny laughed nonchalantly.

"_You don't sound upset. Talk._" the techno-geek demanded from the other end of the line.

Danny swung his legs back over the side of the bed before standing up in one fluid motion, "Oh, don't get me wrong, Tuck; I'm furious. It's just that now I'm gonna be able to foil yet another of Plasmius's evil plans right under his nose—hopefully. But it doesn't make much sense to me _why_ he's doing this... I'm sure he must know that he's made it obvious to me that he's planning something! What is going on in his head? This way I'll get to keep a closer watch on him, but now I'm not sure anymore what his motives are..." The teenage half ghost hybrid had unwittingly started pacing around the large bedroom.

"_Dude, I think that it's great and all that you get to keep an eye on him, but I'm starting to think that Plasmius is thinking the same thing about __**you **__right now._"

Danny felt like he'd just been slapped on the face. He definitely hadn't thought of _that. _As soon as he heard this he halted and leaned back against the nearest thing he could reach, which happened to be a cherry wood dresser at the back of the room. "Ah, are you kidding me?! Please tell me you're joking!" He paused only for a second before continuing without a response from his friend. "So, are you trying to tell me that Vlad is having me stay with him because he wants to make sure that _I _don't do something?" he pointed his thumb right at the center of his chest as he emphasized the word 'I' heavily.

"_Hey, I'm just saying! It's a possibility that he wants to keep an eye on you so he can make sure you're not doing anything to stop him!_" Tucker explained.

"Yeah, that makes sense. But still... I swear he's up to something or I'll eat my socks; I'll find out what it is! Whether or not he's got his eyes glued on my every move!"

Tucker piped in, "_But what if it turns out that he wasn't up to anything after all? That he's just doing this to get revenge?_"

"Then I'll eat my socks," Danny stated simply. "But now that you mention it, the whole thing with Vlad's study is weird. The whole place was _destroyed! _And from what I've heard, it smells..." he chuckled. Before Tucker could question that though, Danny explained, "Like rotten eggs. I don't really think that Vlad did it himself anymore, unless he has a way with making things smell like that! And, since Vlad seems to have the idea that I did it, I think I'll have to look into it sometime. But it's kind of funny that it just so happened that Plasmius's house was attacked and then mine too just a couple minutes after. It's just... strange." he switched the cell phone to his other ear as he started slowly back towards the bed and sat down on the mattress once again.

"_Yeah, I totally agree with you on that one. Something fishy, that's for sure. So, have you told Sam about this yet?_" Tucker asked. There was a pause from his end of the line as there was a slight shuffling sound.

"Um, yes, and she wants to come over after school tomorrow to help find out more on this whole thing." Danny replied.

"_Okay. Yeah, that'd be good. So, are you planning on doing any searching tonight? It'd probably be a good idea—_"

Danny replied, "As a matter of fact, yes. I think everyone's asleep now and now's the perfect time. I'll start with the lab and study and then see what I can find—" He paused and pulled the phone away from his ear as a cool and light wisp of blue smoke curled up out of his mouth. _Uh… I hope that isn't something I need to check on… _he irritably thought to himself; he sure wasn't in the mood for more ghost hunting! He straightened up, listening as he heard muffled voices and a set of footsteps echoing down the hall outside his room.

"_Danny? You still there?_" Tucker's softened voice called up to him after a lengthy pause.

Danny flinched slightly at the sudden sound of his best friend's voice, having been concentrating on whom the voices belonged to and what they were saying. "Oh… on second thought, I think I'm going to have to call it quits for the night…. Apparently _somebody _is still awake; looks like I was wrong." he grumbled.

"_Oh,_" Tucker responded, having gotten the idea of what was going on. "_Well, then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then!_" There was a click and then silence. Danny snapped the phone shut and slipped it into his pocket, his eyes narrowed as he got closer to the door; however, after only a moment of listening they suddenly grew wide once he recognized the owner of the first voice.

_Crap, it's Vlad! _he hastily leapt forward and switched off the light, leaving him in almost complete darkness with only the moonlight outside to light the room. Didn't want to let the man know he was still awake…. He eagerly pressed his ear to the door, slightly biting his lip.

"Honestly, I sometimes don't know _why _I put up with _any _of you three!" the man was irately ranting. And even though he sounded seriously ticked off, he still kept his voice fairly low.

"Ve tried our best, ve swear!" one of the three Vlad was mad at defensively yet timidly replied loudly.

"Shut your beak!" the billionaire hissed at the vulture ghost. His pace quickened, apparently anxious to make it to the end of the hall. "Because of you three and your incompetence, someone has _ransacked_ my personal study and destroyed all of the information I've worked so hard to find on Desolation! Now... let me clarify one thing—that information had taken me nearly ten years now to collect... and _now it is all. Gone._"

Danny raised his eyebrows. Desolation... what was that again? The name rang a bell and he felt like he would be really stupid if he didn't remember it... Oh, yes! Wasn't it the name of some region in the Ghost Zone? He remembered seeing it on the map of the Zone he normally followed; it was tucked away in the corner of the map, sort of close to the region Clockwork lived in. So what had Vlad been trying to find out?

A deep voice snickered and made a snide comment, which Danny didn't quite catch; but, it earned an indignant "Hey!" from all three ghost vultures. It also caused Vlad to turn his attention to him. Danny frowned in concentration before daring to turn invisible and phase his head through the door for a peek. He turned his head down each direction before finding them. Vlad's stride was resolute while the other four followed in a sort of detached and awkward manner. The tapping of his shoes was much more distinct now that there wasn't a door in between to muffle the sound.

"You're one to talk, Skulker. I ask you to do the really _simple _task of searching the town for anything unusual and _instead _you get _sidetracked _and as a result come back to me with your ectoskeleton barely intact..." he responded calmly, but still with a hint of mirth in his voice. Even though by now Vlad had passed the room Danny was in and had his back to him, Danny could just see that annoying smirk on his lips.

"Hey—I _was _doing what you told me to!" Skulker raised his hands, chuckling in response. Danny smiled faintly at seeing all the damage and dents in the hunter's ectoskeleton. "I just thought that I would have a little... fun while on the job," and there was that untamed grin again... "It's not my fault your little 'pawn' interfered with my duties..." he said reasonably, though a dangerous edge was now in his voice.

Danny bit his tongue hard to stifle a snort that he had been ready to let out. Ah, the loon got what he deserved...

"Be that as it may, did you manage to find _anything _before Miss Gray attacked you?" Plasmius turned his head to his ally.

"Well... the only thing I noticed by the time I'd gotten to the whelp's house was that the front door was wide open. So, not much, but before that I did notice that there was an odd-looking cloud of smoke coming up from the woods behind your estate... I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this problem, but I thought that it would be something you would want to hear about."

Vlad's sure footing faltered and he paused towards the end of the hall. "Very well," he said thoughtfully. "I suppose that should be something to look into..." He started walking again, turning around the corner as he continued to discuss the subject with Skulker. However, Danny didn't follow; of course Vlad had probably sensed his signature before then, but the man probably thought that was just because he was close to his room. But, it would probably cause suspicion if he could still sense it strongly while he was walking down the next hall away from him. But, it didn't really matter too much to Danny. After all, he'd heard quite a bit that interested him...

He supposed that keeping close to the enemy had its ups...


	5. Chapter Four: Introductions

**Okay, so I took this writing test online to see which author I wrote like most…. And my result was Stephen King. O.o Really? I don't really know about _that._ This isn't in the horror genre! Or is it? **

Fun Danny: Oh yes it is, dude!

**Oh, come on… it's not _that _terrifying! You're just mad at what you have to deal with for the rest of the story... It's probably just the style of writing. **

Fun and Super Danny:... Suuuuuure.

**Well, anyways, back to the story! I hope you all enjoy this one, hehe; I know last chapter was a little more of a filler than action, which I apologize for (oh, curse the necessary stuff!), but this one is a bit more exciting. **

**We are starting with our ... ahem, mysterious new villain *grins* and shedding a little more light on some matters; _some, _not all—though some things will also be hinted at (oh, curse all the loose ends)! So, this first part is more informational and then the second part is where it gets more exciting. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.**

* * *

**Chapter Four  
****Introductions**

_I don't understand..._ the ghost mused, slowly pacing around the room as he frowned at his shaking hands. For the past hour or so he had noticed that his form was... unstable; and really unstable at that. A fine dust of some sort trailed off of his body with every movement he made. He rubbed his hands together, staring with incredulous horror as a stream of the same pale-colored powder was separated from his skin and slowly fell down to the fancy rug beneath his feet. _What is happening?_ So far from what he had concluded, it seemed like he was almost disintegrating! **Slowly** disintegrating; and he was becoming quite desperate.

For starters, he supposed that this was all happening because of the recent loss of the Gale Gem. And now that it was gone, well... it was lucky that he was still there. The fact that he had been holding onto that feather had been the difference between sudden destruction and staying intact. Miraculously, some of its regenerating powers had been conferred upon him so he wasn't dissolved on the spot. However, one feather that was no longer attached to the source could only do so much to save him, unfortunately. The power was now running out slowly and so that meant that he was just as slowly losing his powers as well. If there was any chance of survival for him, he needed that phoenix...

He pulled out the long red feather that had barely saved his afterlife, his hand clenching into a fist of rage around it. The once vibrant crimson color was now gone, now a dull red with only a slight half-hearted glow around its edges. Sparks flew from it briefly before they died down into dull-colored ashes when they reached the floor. Yes, he really needed that bird and he needed it _now!_

He turned and strode angrily over to the glass door leading outside at the other side of the room, leaving yet another trail of dust flying behind him. Opening the latch in a fluid motion, he walked out onto the balcony, leaning over the parapet as he stared down at the scene below him with an indifferent expression on his face.

His location in the castle was quite high up, in one of the many towers overlooking the rest of the island. Even at the base of the castle it was already at a fairly high elevation. The island was, it seemed a lone mountain with a gentle incline for the most part and the summit abruptly cut off where the castle began. In truth it was probably too small to be called a mountain, but it was also way too large to be just a hill. It was somewhere in the middle, being neither of the two. The heavy forest topography concealed most of the actual mountain, rarely leaving a place where it was bare. The ghost's cold and calculating eyes brushed over the landscape.

Who would have figured? The firebird had been nothing but a nuisance to him for nearly two thousand years—he knew that it had lived on his island for all that time, though he never really bothered in having someone capture it. He figured it wasn't worth the time or effort because the spirit had been harmless and not a threat to him. But, it became more of a problem as of late when it had started robbing him. Those golden fruits that he grew in the courtyards of his castle had all sorts of not only supernatural properties but also magical ones. He had that knowledge already from his past life—he'd been a powerful and well-known alchemist and sorcerer. He was called Anisim the Great for a reason. Those fruits had the power of giving youth and strength to whoever consumed it and boosted intellect and speed as well. It helped one to notice everything in their surroundings—it truly was a useful power. However, the formula took ages to concoct and also several _more_ ages to mature. After figuring out the bird was ruining decades of his work, he wanted the annoyance to be brought to him. But, once he needed it because his afterlife quite literally depended on it, he couldn't find the blasted phoenix! Directly after the last theft the bird had fled back to the foot of the mountain to the natural portal and gone back to the Human Realm.

"Report," he ordered calmly, startling the ten ghosts that had entered silently. Four of the ghosts were dressed in the regular guard uniforms while the other six stuck out, each dressed differently in almost a bizarre way.

"Sir, there's no sign of Miss Dark... we searched all over in the Ghost Zone." one of the guards replied.

"And you're sure she's not in the Human Realm? The little brat is probably too cowardly to come back here just yet." Anisim stated matter-of-factly. _Though that won't stop what's coming to her for doing this to me,_ he added murderously in his head, causing his eyes to flash yellow once again. This being seemingly for no reason, all four of the guards were cowed in anxiety, almost shrinking somewhat in stature even. However, the other six's expressions remained the same as they had been before, unresponsive to their master's betrayal of his calm demeanor.

One of the other six who were dressed differently cleared his throat loudly before loudly (and almost obnoxiously) saying, "_I_ heard that she's been apprehended, Anisim. Didn't really surprise me though." His tone suggested that he was proud to have been the one to deliver this news to his master. He appeared to be in his late twenties, with short spiked hair that was a flashy yet dark hue of red, as was his clothing.

"Oh? And how just how much more did you hear, Flavius?" the ghost folded his arms, raising an amused eyebrow at the intrepid declaration. This behavior didn't really surprise him in the least, since he'd known this young-looking specter for quite some time—as he also knew the other five that stuck out. It was in his nature to be bold.

"Oh, word's been spreading in the Zone that some ghost kid took her down," the woman next to Flavius casually informed him. Her white hair was medium length and really wavy, cascading over her shoulders almost like a waterfall. Her cool lagoon blue eyes lowered to examine her fingernails indifferently, "never been seen since."

"When? When was this?" he urgently inquired.

Flavius pondered this for a moment before answering, "Around a month ago."

_The very same time my Gem was destroyed, _he deduced. "Was... was she...?" his pale eyes narrowed in bewilderment.

"Destroyed? No." another man finished the unfinished question, this one quite slim with long light gray and white-streaked hair, silver eyes glinting like metal in the semidarkness. He spoke rapidly, almost double speed of someone talking at a regular pace.

"Alright. And who was this... ghost child?" Anisim softly asked, a dangerous tone lurking just barely beneath the surface. It was becoming apparent to him what must have happened—he should have known better than to assume things like that. Even though the Ghost King's daughter had absolutely no respect left for his own afterlife, he knew her well enough to know that she would never willingly destroy the powerful object his fate was connected to. She was way too power-hungry to sacrifice such an object. But... what of this other ghost that had defeated her?

"Oh, no one that we would know. He is just some ghost that defends the human city Amity Park from other ghosts—" Flavius answered carelessly.

"That's odd," the sorcerer ghost declared, staring unbelieving at the red-haired ghost. A ghost... that fought other ghosts? For the likes of _humans_? That was unheard of...

"Tell me about it," the bright blue-eyed woman laughed, absolutely bubbling with excitement. "He goes by Phantom; Danny Phantom."

The ghost finally walked back inside, closing the door behind him. While the four guards remained stony-faced, the other six's eyes widened slightly as they saw the dust trailing behind him once again. "Well, then," he sniffed, straightening up. "I think it's time that we extend our greetings to this... hero. Wouldn't you agree?" he smiled faintly as the others understood just what was meant by 'greetings.' "And while doing so you can rectify that mistake with the phoenix..." he sourly ended.

"Hey, I told you that it was Lorelei's fault that the bird got away!" Flavius raised his hands defensively, gesturing towards the woman on his left.

"You liar!" the white-haired woman suddenly snapped, whipping towards him. Her eyes were suddenly a hostile color, more the color of the clouds of a hurricane than the calm blue they had been before.

"Really," he scathingly replied, his orange eyes glowing maliciously now while a dark red flame started building up in both of his hands and also his hair. "You're the one who made us stay behind at Plasmius' place to '_get rid of evidence.'_ If we had gotten a move on and not wasted any more time, we would have had it cornered and we wouldn't be having this argument right now!" The plan was supposed to have been really simple—once they figured out that the firebird had gone off to the Human Realm Anisim had sent his six apprentices to Amity Park to retrieve it. They were to sneak into the town through Vlad Plasmius' portal, find the bird, and capture it. That was all.

The room temperature dropped even more as Lorelei's eyes turned to an extremely dark blue, almost black color like the deep ocean. In fact, everyone present in the room felt an extremely unpleasant and cold headache-inducing pressure around them, like the weight of the whole ocean was on top of them. Water had formed around both her hands as well, "Would you rather that we had let the man keep all that information? He could have found out the whereabouts of this castle and its history and _you know _what that would mean!"

The other four just rolled their eyes in exasperation as the two were almost literally butting heads with each other. This was so typical of the two—they had been going at it for nearly a thousand years by then—it wasn't even funny anymore...

"Calm yourselves..." Anisim held out his hands, gesturing to both of them. "I didn't teach you the elements just so you could tear each other apart. Oh, and Flavius? You're stinking up the room..." He waved a hand in front of his nose trying to swat the odor of sulfur away from his face.

Lorelei snickered as Flavius' face flushed with embarrassment, "Sorry..."

"Now..." the sorcerer began, "you six will go back there and return with that bird or else I will personally..." he held up a gray flame engulfed fist, making it clear to them that he meant business this time.

"Yes, sir," all six of them replied.

The specter turned back around to face the glass door once again as the six apprentices and the other four guards exited the room. He ran a hand through his slicked back black hair, not even registering that it left a trail of dust running through it. Now, even though Melania Dark wasn't really able to be punished for her insolence, this ghost boy _Danny Phantom_... he was going to pay for his actions.

* * *

The peacock-sized bird finally managed to land on the low-hanging branch of a sapling in the park. The branch bounced slowly up and down with this newfound pressure on top of it; the phoenix swayed precariously, a soft musical note peeping out of her as she waited for the branch to settle. The small red bird leaned over the edge so the weight of her body could even out the weight of her long tail hanging over on the other side of the branch.

Her muscles were tensed, having been on the run all of the day; well, practically all month, but more so in the last day. She looked around rapidly, turning her head every which way to make sure that she was alone. Even though she'd lost those... hooligans... back in the woods behind the huge house back on the other side of town, she was still quite afraid. Another soft melody came out of the perturbed phoenix.

After several minutes of silence and uneasy glances in every direction, the phoenix finally seemed to decide that she would be safe there for the night. Slowly her muscles relaxed somewhat as she made herself more comfortable.

_Snap._

_What was that?_ The bird's head jerked up suddenly, bright and alert golden eyes scanning the shrubbery surrounding her.

"_**Caw!**_" a harsh call sounded from above.

The phoenix just as quickly looked up at the dark bird circling overhead like an undersized vulture. _Oh no! It was __**them**__ again! _

A distressed call came from the phoenix as she took flight again, darting away towards the outskirts of the town as quickly as was possible. Several shadows followed closely behind...

"Gaia!" a huge ghost clad in green and black harshly called from directly behind the phoenix, almost quite literally on the bird's tail. He made a vicious swipe at the long tail feathers, which barely missed its intended target by several inches.

Off by the side of a grove of trees that the phoenix and her pursuers were approaching, a small girl that was dressed almost identically to the other mischievously giggled as they neared. Right before the phoenix passed by she jerked her left hand upward, causing a humongous slab of rock to suddenly jut up from the ground in front. It slightly curved over as the phoenix was suddenly forced to fly upwards and over the obstacle. The other muscular male ghost finally caught onto one of the tail feathers, which was torn off as the bird refused to stop flying. The bird gave out a screech of agony, yet pressed onward without a decrease of speed. The other four swerved around the obstacle, continuing the chase without the two.

Having been forced to stop at the earthy barricade, the brawny specter shook his fist that was still holding the feather that had been left behind, growling.

"Oooh... you tried your best, Marsden," Gaia smirked, her large and glowing amber-colored eyes flashing smugly.

But Marsden clenched his teeth and scowled at the smaller girl, "Shut it," he hissed, his beady apple green eyes exaggerated more when widened.

Gaia's smile widened as she also turned to rejoin the chase. The large ghost let out an irritated sigh before flying after her.

The firebird, however, had gotten a huge lead on the sorcerer's apprentices, now with nearly a fifty foot gap between her and her followers. She craned her neck to peer behind her, before letting out a musical little laugh. They seemed to be dropping in speed, as a result beginning to drop farther and farther behind. She still just might have had a chance to shake them off once again!

However, as soon as she turned back to face forward again, her golden eyes widened in shock. She swerved to the left as she suddenly found herself in line with a gigantic white building. Her right wingtip just barely brushed against the structure as she avoided crashing into it. _That sure was a close one..._ the bird inwardly gave a sigh of relief. However, just as soon as the phoenix thought that it would be smooth sailing from then on, someone screamed from below when she rounded the corner towards the entrance to the building.

"Agent F! We've got a code 2415 by the southwest side of HQ! Engage in procedure GDPL12!"

The phoenix spirit barely had time to consider what this could possibly mean but it turned out that she didn't have to. An obnoxious and deafening wail pierced the surrounding area. The firebird cringed, letting out a frightened call. What was going on? What was that awful noise?

A blast from the ground below nicked the phoenix's side. She looked down, hovering in place for the briefest moment as she wondered at the sight below her. There were humans down there, all dressed in white just like the building they had come out of, all carrying weapons of some sort and aiming them... at her? Why?! They should have been aiming for the six terrible ghosts that had been chasing her!

Meanwhile, the other six were just barely catching up to them, at first unaware of what was going on as they also rounded the corner to follow their quarry. As the gray-haired lanky ghost sped around the bend, Lorelei snatched him by the collar of his robe and yanked him back so they remained unseen to the humans on the other side.

"Not so fast, Tarrant. We've got trouble..."

"Oh, that's marvelous..." Tarrant loudly and quickly whispered as he peered around to see the humans attacking the phoenix. "_Pesky humans... _What do we do now?"

"Wait..." Lorelei held up a hand in front of the rest of them, carefully observing the scene and quite unable to make anything of it.

"No! We can take them!" Flavius's red hair burst into an excited flame, his orange eyes glinting again.

"_No, __**wait! **_What's that?" the woman pointed off in the distance at a small glowing dot that was getting closer to the building.

* * *

_**BOOM!**_

Danny's eyes snapped wide open before drooping again as he slowly turned his head to glance at the glowing digital clock on his nightstand. "...Huh?" he groggily looked around. What on earth had woken him up at 1:08 in the morning?! Was it another ghost attacking the city? He stared up at the purple velvet canopy above the bed as he waited for a few moments without hearing anything more. "Hmm... must've just been a dream or something..." he woozily mumbled before settling back down on the pillow and closing his eyes again. A couple seconds later though...

_**BOOM!**_

"Okay, I'm up, I'm up!" Danny yelled, tearing the covers off of him and swinging his legs over the side, standing up and sprinting over to the window. Man, and he was in a deep sleep just barely before then, too! Couldn't he at least be able to get a decent night's rest for once? He thought that the _least _he deserved was that! _I mean, is it too much to ask for?_ he thought irately.

Ripping apart the curtains, he rubbed his sleep-filled eyes as he peered through the glass. At first there was another silence, which was only filled by the chirping of the crickets. But then came another bang! Just off in the distance towards the other side of town was where the commotion seemed to be coming from.

"I swear if that's the Box Ghost again, I'm going to kill him _again!_" the half-ghost muttered, exhaustedly changing into ghost mode and phasing through the window to outside of the large mansion.

He darted off towards the sound, flying over the tops of the buildings. He frowned in confusion, squinting off towards the outskirts of Amity Park. As he got closer to the other side of town, Danny started seeing the flashes of light that came with every exploding sound.

_What the...? Just what exactly is going on here?! _Danny thought, absolutely bewildered.

A large lit structure came into his view; now it had become apparent that whatever was going on, it was happening around the Guys in White headquarters on the edge of town. Danny could tell since he could hear the distinct wail of an alarm going off.

_Oh... _Danny realized, shaking his head with regret. _Some unfortunate ghost must've gotten too close to the building and triggered the defense system..._ "And I mean _really _unfortunate..." he added out loud, chuckling nervously as he did so. He shuddered at the thought.

As soon as he had approached the large white building, his eyes widened when he saw the cause of all the noise. There was a loud distressed screech as a glowing red bird was caught by the blast of one of the GiW's weapons.

"It's... it's a bird." Danny said to himself, absolutely puzzled. "Barely past one in the morning and today's already going to be one of my more _interesting _days..." he dryly commented.

He ducked under the cover of some nearby trees just to take a moment to soak in the scene some more. _What on Earth...? _Danny blinked, frowning. _I wonder what this ghost's doing here? It doesn't __**look **__like it was trying to do anything wrong! So why are they...? _ The hybrid's neon green eyes suddenly narrowed to half mast with the realization. _Duh... ghost. _He rolled his eyes as he slowly put a white-gloved hand to his face.

Just as the peacock-like specter seemed to come out of its shock, it finally tried to begin moving away from the place it was hovering in. However, the firing weapons of the Guys in White were making it extremely difficult to do so, acting like a barricade.

"Alright, I've seen enough!" Danny muttered, turning invisible and speeding up to where the distressed bird was floating, shrieking in a panicked tone.

Just as another blast was aimed directly at the bird, Danny flung himself in front of it and quickly provided a green shield for the attack to merely bounce off. He let himself regain visibility, causing several yells from down below.

"Yup. It's me!" Danny breathed in slowly, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do. _Please work! _he inwardly prayed. The half-ghost closed his eyes tight and split into three phantoms.

The real Danny opened his eyes as the duplicates swooped down upon the white-clad ghost hunters, effectively distracting them for the moment. He turned to the red bird that was behind him, which was at that moment cowering in fear with its head tucked beneath a wing. He bit his lip before quickly wrapping an arm around the petrified bird and beginning to speed away in the opposite direction of the Guys in White facility.

The teenager looked down at the ghost worriedly. It still hadn't even moved from its previous position, still hiding beneath its wings. However, Danny increased his speed, since quite frankly this bird was quite hot to the touch, which he could feel even through his thick clothing. It was now starting to burn holes through his black jumpsuit and causing him mild discomfort.

Once he reached the park he lowered himself to the ground and set the ghost down on a small boulder, not even hesitating to start rubbing his sore arms. "Uuuugh..." he groaned, looking down at his blistered red skin, which showed through the many small holes in his clothing. "Wonder if Vlad's got any aloe... Hehe, well here's for hoping he'll be in the giving mood..."

His smile faded as he then warily cast his eyes back to the bird that was still laying on the boulder. By now there were small blackened burns on the large rock from where its feathers had touched it. However, the smallish bird had dared to bring its head out from under its wing and was now staring up at the ghost boy with curiosity.

Danny blinked for a second as the bird remained silent, just sitting there and gawking up at him like he were a Martian or something. "If I were you, I'd stay away from the Guys in White... frankly they'd sooner want to dissect you than get to know you..." he chuckled.

However, when the bird didn't respond, he sighed, "Well, I think you'll be safe here. You'll be okay, right?" the bird blinked and slowly nodded its head. It still seemed to be in some sort of daze.

"Okay, then. Make sure you stay out of trouble!" he smiled before taking off again. The phoenix rolled over to stand up on its feet, still quite surprised.

_Oh boy... _Danny let out his breath exhaustedly, his green eyes drooping as he slowly started heading back to _Mayor Masters' _house. _I'm gonna need a long rest after this month..._

* * *

**Uugh... still so many things I want to explain already after all of this... but they'll have to wait for the moment. It's killin' me here! *sigh* oh well, I'll survive.**

**Well, alright then; the muses and I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter! From now on the pace is only going to get faster and faster!**

**Also, I'm really curious about what you're thinking after this! Any comments, thoughts, or advice would be awesome at this point!**

**Until next time then!**


	6. Chapter Five: Slight Complications

**Guess what? *leans in closer and whispers* I'm not dead! Phew! I'm so so soooooooo sorry about the serious lack of updating, but there was the school musical, and then a bombardment of homework, and then I lost my flash drive for a while, and then once I found it again I got yet another boatload of homework—I had a bunch of essays to write (including a book report) and math homework and science experiments that kept me busy. **

**Oh, and one more thing, in response to PhantomTrainer's review! I'm doing this in the author's note just in case others have noticed the same thing. Yes, I noticed that Anisim's name DOES kind of look a lot like Ansem from KH... and it was completely coincidental, believe it or not! :3 I was looking up Russian names when coming up with the villain and came across 'Anisim' which means 'profitable and useful one.' And I'm mostly just using this name for the meaning, even though it was kind of funny once I realized what it sounded like! As to how the meaning of the name plays in the story (and **_**who **_**the villain really is, for that matter! *winks), you may have already guessed or maybe you haven't yet—but, in any case it does play a large role in the story! For now though, think of it as a sort of 'title' that was given to him. **

**Well, once again I hope you enjoy this next chapter! Now comes the first part that gets the ball rolling! Thank you for bearing with me! I'm so glad that all of that plot building is finally over! X3 Sorry once again for the really long wait!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own DP.**

* * *

**Chapter Five  
****Slight Complications**

"Now," Vlad Plasmius said calmly, gazing around the forested environment, "have you three located the source of the smoke yet?" Pine trees towered over him, every now and then a patch of beech trees to break it up. This part of the woods behind his estate was particularly thick and it was difficult to see much sunlight penetrating the canopy of leaves. As much as he would hate to say it, this place was bringing back some terrible memories. It looked a lot like a certain forest that he had been stranded in fairly recently. If he hadn't known better, he probably would have mistaken it for the same one.

"_Not yet! Hold your horses!_" came the annoyed voice of the leader of the vultures.

Plasmius rolled his eyes, flying through the trees. "And you, Skulker?" he spoke again into the communicator on his wrist. Yes, he probably _should_ rely more on the hunter to get the job done.

"_Nope. Since it stopped, I have to use my smelling to track it down..." _the hunter replied. "_I think I'm almost there, though..."_

"_Oh! Oh, __**vait**__, Boss! Ve think ve've found something!_" another one of the vultures suddenly (and rather loudly) said after a minute, causing Vlad to involuntarily flinch.

"Really?" Vlad blinked out of surprise, and for the most part, disbelief.

Static started to interfere with the communicator, so most of what the vultures had to say was drowned out. "_Ve... check... it's... p-..._" Vlad clenched his teeth as he closed his eyes. The static was now so loud, it was starting to drown out the man's thoughts as well! "_Aah!... Plas... he...at... Aahhhhh!_"

"Hold on! I can't hear you!" he growled, frustrated.

However, he didn't really need to tell them that, seeing as the static abruptly cut off, as well as the sound of their talking. Vlad halted in midair, still holding the communicator up to his mouth; he waited, frozen like this, for some kind of a response from the three vultures. However, after a minute or two he saw that he probably wasn't going to get one any time soon.

"Blast..." he muttered. "Skulker?" he finally spoke again. "It seems like those three buffoons are having technical difficulties..."

"_Of course they are,_" came Skulker's snide reply.

"Yes... you _did _say that you were getting close? Once you get there, check on them..." Plasmius sighed exasperatedly, shaking his head.

"_Of course I will..._" the hunter repeated.

"Report on what you find in a couple hours... I in the meantime have business to take care of..." Vlad lowered the device from his lips before disappearing in a whirl of pink smoke and reappearing in his study.

After glancing around the room, he began pacing back and forth in front of the bookcases, turning back into Masters in mid-stride. The study was still quite a mess, even though it was a little better than it was before. The smell of rotten eggs had finally died off for the most part and the bookcases had been set back upright, with all of the books and papers put back to where they were before. However, scorch marks were still all over the carpet, walls, and ceiling.

Vlad's eyes flashed red in anger in frustration. He still didn't really understand what had happened and why it had happened—who _did it,_ for that matter. After everything was cleaned up, he found that everything had survived to a degree except for one subject, which was completely wiped out: Desolation. All of that hard work gathering that information, wasted—Well, he guessed not _completely _wasted, considering he still remembered some of it.

He wasn't entirely convinced it was Daniel who had done this anymore, though. He doubted the boy even knew of the place! But _some_one obviously did know and didn't want him to figure out any more about it!

And he was going to find out why.

* * *

A couple of days had passed, and they were surprisingly uneventful for the most part. Danny got to enjoy the rare luxury of sleeping in for the first time in what seemed like months. There were no early-morning ghost attacks to take care of after that unexpected GiW incident and there was no alarm to awaken him since there was no school. Most of the day after that he stayed hanging out with Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger. After all, there wasn't really anything pleasant about staying at Vlad's place now that his parents had left for Europe. That was the tactic Danny had thought up to avoid the billionaire as much as possible. Vlad probably wasn't enjoying that fact too much.

"And that's how I'm going to survive this month!" Danny nodded resolutely before taking a long draught of his soda. Sam and Tucker glanced at each other, as if silently conveying messages to each other.

"It's too bad you have to deal with this for that long, though," Sam said sympathetically.

Tucker chimed in, "Maybe you could find a way of changing your parents' minds! Make them come home early."

Danny mumbled, "I already tried, but they won't have any of it! Dad promised that he and Mom would call me and Jazz everyday so it would 'feel like they're still with us.' But, that was it. They're staying over there for a month, period."

Both of his friends sighed heavily; Tucker glanced down at his watch, "Well, at least it's a good thing that we have that fundraiser basketball game to go to! Seeing _Lancer_ playing will cheer you up, right? That'll get your mind off of things!"

"Yeah..." Danny gave a small smile in response before looking behind him at the clock on the wall to check the time himself. It was 5:37, and the game started at 7:00, so there wasn't _too _much longer to wait. "I think I'd enjoy that!"

"I heard it's going to be sort of chilly tonight, though. I don't think I'd enjoy that..." Sam grumbled.

Danny let out a hiss of irritation, "Crap. That means I have to go back _there _to get my jacket... Oh well, I think I'll be able to slip past Vlad."

After a moment, Sam raised her eyes again to Danny, changing the subject, "So, you said that you wanted to talk about something, Danny?"

The halfa's eyes widened as he seemed to suddenly remember that as well. He glanced out of the window and leaned backward slightly, as if looking for something. The streets were completely empty at the moment, though. "Oh, yeah. I had another... ghost encounter. Last night. Apparently some sort of bird ghost—it might have been a phoenix, I'm not sure, got too close to the Idiots in White HQ and triggered the alarm. I ended up... saving it from them." Danny seemed to be preoccupied with the scenery outside of the fast-food restaurant. "Since it wasn't the one doing the actual attacking, I let it go, but the bird hasn't left Amity since I saved it."

Sam and Tucker blinked, puzzled. "Why?" Tucker asked after a length of time.

"That's what I was wondering. It's not causing any trouble like other ghosts. That's not the problem. The problem is that I'm worried that the Guys in White will see it again—or worse, Valerie! I might not have that much of a problem with it hanging around if it doesn't cause trouble, but _they _sure would!" Danny said. "So, what shou-... there it is now!" he said quietly as he gestured out the window with a small tilt of his head. Sam and Tucker followed his gaze and sure enough, a glowing red peacock-like bird had just perched around twenty yards away on a lamppost outside, watching them curiously. "So what should I do?" Danny finished.

"Wow. Well, I suggest you talk to it!" Sam said simply. When Danny stared at her in response, she continued, "It's staying here for a reason, obviously. You'll never know why unless you ask. You're making this way too hard on yourself!"

"Okay, then... _Gosh_, I feel like an idiot..." Danny got up from his seat.

"Don't worry, Danny! If anything goes wrong, we've got your back!" Tucker winked wryly, pulling out his PDA while Sam rolled her eyes.

Knowing this was a reference to his recent encounter with Skulker, Danny folded his arms, "Cute, Tucker. Cute." He then made his way back to the men's room, closing the door to a stall behind him and turning into Phantom. Danny phased through the wall to the outside of the building.

He quickly flew around the building and then hesitated before approaching the phoenix. The bird was singing, its warbling sounding very similar to the sound of a piccolo. The air in the surrounding area actually started to move around, a pleasantly warm breeze rushing by. It felt so good... but the tune that the phoenix was singing snapped Danny out of it; it was familiar, but it took a moment to put a finger on it. Danny frowned slightly, bemused_... Wait a second... that's the tune Mom and Dad heard before they passed out and the house was..._ Danny growled at the thought that had popped into his head. Why, he'd show that ghost for wrecking his house and then making a fool of him! His eyes flashed brightly as he was almost immediately up to where the bird was waiting.

The firebird didn't seem too surprised that the ghost boy had come to it. In fact, it seemed that it had been expecting it.

"_Hello, Danny Phantom_," the bird bubbled out even before Danny could open his mouth all the way. Unlike Vlad's vulture goons, the phoenix's beak wasn't moving when she spoke. The voice that came from the phoenix was light yet had a rich tone at the same time; it had a weird sound—almost as if the girl's voice was a fast-paced and excited song. "_I've been wanting to get a chance to talk with you again..._"

"Why did you destroy my house?" Danny got right down to the point and asked, though it sounded like it was more of a blunt statement than anything else.

The phoenix demeanor shrunk slightly at the question, as if in guilt. She left her perch on the lamppost and approached Danny, floating in the space in front of him. "_I truly am sorry about that, ghost boy. I assure you that it wasn't intentional!_"

The halfa's only response was, "Mm-hmm..."

"_I was being pursued and they cornered me there as I was trying to get back home. I had to fight my way out!_" the phoenix was becoming agitated and flustered.

Danny deflated somewhat at the tone in the bird's voice, "Who?"

"_Evil ghosts,_" was her reply. She almost sounded like a distressed child, about to cry.

The half-ghost raised an eyebrow; okay, so that only narrowed it down a little. "Who do they work for?" he asked, trying to prod more information from the ghost bird.

"_The sorcerer..._" she mysteriously said. Before Danny could really process the response, though, the phoenix's tone abruptly changed from the anxious twitter to a soft and worried one, "_I came back to warn you that he is also after you. He is planning something against you."_

Danny nodded, saying casually, "Why is he after me? Or you? Oh, never mind; don't worry, I know how to deal with crazy ghosts. Just tell me where he is in the Ghost Zone and I'll take care of him."

"_No, Danny Phantom! You don't know what he is capable of!_"

"I'm serious!" Danny said, this time his tone sober. "If this crackpot is planning something dangerous, then I want to stop it!"

The phoenix remained silent for a moment, blinked her large golden eyes several times before finally caving in. "_Very well then. He lives in Desolation..."_

Danny's eyes widened. _I remember __**Vlad**__ was talking about that... I wonder if this has anything to do with him again... _Danny thought.

"_You cannot enter through the Ghost Zone; he has made it that way, and there is only one other entrance to his castle, and that is through a secret portal in the forest..._"

"Thank you..." Danny said, nodding his head.

"_But I also came here to thank you properly for saving me..._" She reached back with her beak and plucked one of her long tail feathers. The phoenix held it out to Danny, who hesitantly took it. "_Keep this; I've never particularly liked using my powers for fighting, but if you are ever in real need of my aid, I will gladly come and help you..._"

Danny blinked a couple times, still processing all of this newfound information, "Thanks again... now, do you know exactly where I can find this secret entr—"

"Oooh! Ghost Boy! Over here!" The ecstatic voice came from down below, so loudly that even Danny cringed.

Reluctantly, Danny sighed and slowly turned his head away from the ghost bird and peered down at the pavement below to see a _very_ unwelcome sight. "Paulina..." the half-ghost muttered, a figurative heavy boulder seeming to drop down into his stomach. Sure enough, the seemingly flawless face of Paulina Sanchez was beaming up at him in delight, waving her arms in an attempt to gain his attention. _Not again... _His head snapped back to where the phoenix had been, only to see empty space in its stead. _Must've been spooked off..._ Danny smacked his face at the thought.

"Yoo-hoo! I'm free now!" Paulina batted her eyelashes, amber-colored eyes wide. Her voice seemed a little higher-pitched than usual, and maybe just a little too eager as well.

_So she's still after me... _Danny rolled his eyes. "Okay..." Danny softly mumbled to himself, "Maybe I can just... pretend I didn't—"

"You dumped me for him?!" all of a sudden Dash came storming out of the Nasty Burger, his apple green eyes practically flashing with fury as he stomped over toward Paulina.

As Paulina started shouting back at the blond jock, Danny chuckled nervously, kind of at a loss of how to react. So, snatching it while the two of them were focusing on each other, he took his opportunity to sneak away. He turned invisible and flew back into the restroom, where he turned back into Fenton and marched back into the restaurant.

Danny slowly made his way back to where Sam and Tucker were waiting, looking at him questioningly. He stood there for a moment, not really knowing what to explain first—what the phoenix said, or why Paulina and Dash were now having a screaming contest out in the middle of the street.

Danny sighed, "Well..."

* * *

Dash was just taking in another deep breath for another round of shouting, when he noticed that Phantom was nowhere in sight. He quickly let it out in a low fit of laughter. Paulina also let out a giggle, holding up a hand to cover her mouth.

This lasted for several moments, but soon died off. Dash's voice completely changed, this time a lower, slightly older-sounding one, "That was a good one..."

"I'm telling you, I had it _all _under control, Marsden—you didn't need to butt in!" Paulina replied, annoyed. Her voice too had changed, though not by a lot—for one, it was only slightly even higher than before, and had dropped all flirtatious and angry pretenses.

"Whatever you say, Gaia! I wanted to make sure you didn't blow everything. Your voice sounded off and your acting skills need work. I was just distracting the kid from focusing only on you."

Paulina/Gaia rolled her eyes and brushed the comment aside as if she didn't even hear it, "That _was _a close one, though. That bird almost ruined the _surprise_!" She stuck her bottom lip out in a pout and widened her eyes, the glowing amber color even more emphasized.

"Yeah," Dash/Marsden laughed again as the two of them started strolling away from the building, "That would spoil all the _fun_, now, wouldn't it?"

Poor Danny might not have been able to get the location of the secret entrance out of the firebird, but it turned out he didn't need to anyway... because _they_ were going to show him _instead_...

* * *

Danny quietly walked back inside the large house, shutting the large double doors slowly so there was no sound to accompany it. He glanced around the huge room before starting to walk back up the stairs to his guest room. His operation was small—make it upstairs, grab his jacket, and slip back out undetected.

As he made it to the top step, he glanced on both sides of him, rolling his eyes at the decorations. Now this was just plain ridiculous... Now he knew that it wasn't Vlad who had trashed Fenton Works, but the man still probably didn't know vice versa. The bird hadn't mentioned Vlad's study, but he thought it was safe to assume that she had something to do with _that_, too.

"Now, all I have to do is to convince Plasmius of that..." Danny mumbled out loud.

Danny's thoughts returned to the subject of this mysterious 'sorcerer' ghost the phoenix had been running away from. Who was he? Danny didn't know of any magician ghosts, not to mention any who would have anything against him. _Well, I guess that last part doesn't really say anything... After all, I was just recently sent to the middle of nowhere by a crazy ghost girl I'd never met before. _Anyways, he had absolutely no other clue for who this ghost was other than the fact he was a sorcerer.

Why was he after Danny? Well, he _guessed _that it was just because of his reputation; unless the halfa unknowingly _did_ something to cross him, which he really doubted.

But—why was he after the phoenix, most of all? That firebird seemed more meek and skittish than any of the other powerful ghosts. Maybe there was something more to this bird that Danny didn't catch. She did say that she would help him when he _needed _her, right? Danny clutched at the warm feather before tucking it away again. Speaking of which, he never _did _find out how to get to this ghost's lair. He hoped that wouldn't come back to haunt him... He just didn't know...

"I just don't know..." Danny said calmly as he passed by the dining room and kitchen.

"You just don't know _what_?" Danny almost leapt a foot into the air as he suddenly heard the voice of Vlad Masters behind him.

Danny whirled around angrily, his eyes flashing green, "What do you want now?"

"_Temper, temper..._ and all _I _did was ask a simple question!" Vlad pouted before smiling pleasantly again, asking the abrupt question, "Would you mind playing a quick game of chess, dear boy?" He gestured back to the room Danny had just passed.

The younger half-ghost had now gotten over the surprise of the elder's presence, so he replied in only a slightly calmer tone, "Umm, I'd rather not. I'm on my way to the school's basketball game, and if I want a good seat I need to get going... so..."

Vlad let out a laugh, "Don't worry yourself, Daniel, it shouldn't take that long _at all_!"

Danny glared back in response to the masked insult, his face turning a bright shade of red. Vlad slung his arm around Danny's shoulders, "Come now, I insist." The billionaire began casually nudging the boy back to the room he had gestured to, Danny being quite reluctant. Finally, however, he gave in and started walking of his own accord.

"Fine..." he rolled his eyes.

Vlad led the teen back to the room and had him sit down. The elder half-ghost sat in the armchair on the opposite side of the coffee table; it had a fancy porcelain chess set already set up and everything. A fresh and bright fire was crackling in the fireplace; Danny assumed that the man had been expecting him. _Fruit loop..._ he managed to keep the phrase from leaving his mouth. However, it seemed as if Vlad could tell what was on the boy's mind, because he chuckled and leaned back nonchalantly.

"Your move," he lowered his eyes to inspect the back of his hand complacently.

The teen frowned down at the board before moving one of his white pawns forward two spaces. He wasn't really that good at chess; true, he wasn't _horrible _at it... in fact, he even beat Tucker one time—sure, Sam crushed him under her combat boots whenever he played against her, but still... He might not have been able to win against _Vlad..._ but because of his pride, he was determined to at least last longer than the billionaire thought he would. He momentarily forgot about the game he had to get to.

The elder halfa responded quickly, almost without thought and opened up a route for his king side bishop to use. "So..." he casually began.

_Flying mallet..._

"—What was that?" Vlad asked, puzzled.

Danny's eyes snapped back up at the question, the hand that was poised over one of his knights momentarily frozen in place. Did he just say that out loud? "Nothing... you were saying?" He finished his move.

Vlad rolled his eyes before developing his bishop. "Some... weird things have been going on; first... with the demolition of both of our homes..."

The teenager's eyebrows creased as he used his knight to capture Vlad's pawn. Where was he going with this? Did this mean that Plasmius didn't think that he was behind this anymore? He didn't really know if he should be happy or worried, though. Things were never easy with Vlad.

"Kind of odd, isn't it, that they both happen to have the only working portals and they both happen to be attacked?"

"I guess so..." Danny warily responded. He was currently scanning the chessboard, looking for any possible traps Vlad had set up.

"Yes..." Vlad moved his queen diagonally across the board, "It's also quite strange with all of these _wildfires_ out in the woods that have been on the news recently... One might think that these two incidents are related, or something..."

"May...be..." Danny gave the man a look of both bewilderment and anger. "Wait... there've been wildfire_s_? As in... more than one?" A frown tugged at his lips.

"Why, yes, little badger! More than one! You should watch the news more often—oh, and I believe that is checkmate..."

Danny gaped down at the board—what?! Vlad had moved his black bishop down diagonally to take the pawn directly in front of Danny's king side bishop, now leaving the white king trapped. The teen growled and knocked his king over with a flick of his finger before storming out of the room.

Vlad smirked, picking up the toppled king and tossing it up and down in his hand. The multiple wildfires... that had been a little white lie. It had actually been several more hours than Skulker had been told to report, but there was still no sign of the hunter. It was obvious that he _and _those bird-brains had run into some form of trouble, and that had the man worried. Anyone or anything that could overpower Skulker must have been really cunning and strong. However, considering how he had just barely seen Daniel speaking with a ghost that looked like a worthy suspect of being the cause of that smoke... well, it wouldn't hurt to convince the boy into investigating the matter _for _him!

* * *

Danny finally sat down in the bleachers next to Sam and Tucker. He had arrived at the game several minutes into it, to his dismay. He glanced around the court as Sam had to scream in order to be heard over the cheering of the crowd and the jazz band playing in the background. It had been hard to tell at first, but now he could just barely make out the school's song blaring from the band.

"What took you so long?!"

"Nothing! Just a certain fruit loop!" Danny yelled back.

Tucker replied, but the sound was drowned out as the whistle was blown. Apparently Dash had careened into Mr. Lancer 'by accident' or whatever. Foul.

"What?!" both Sam and Danny yelled at Tucker.

"I _saaaid_, Oh! Bummer!"

A sudden icy gust of wind blew through the court, causing the spectators to cry out in discomfort.

Mr. Lancer, looking absolutely ridiculous in the red and white jersey he was wearing, muttered under his breath that probably sounded something like, 'Count of Monte Cristo!' before he threw the ball at the hoop. Another gale of wind rushed through the court, knocking the ball off of its course (as if it were going to go inside the hoop, anyway) and fell to the ground out of bounds. The basketball bounced into the arms of a student on the front row of bleachers.

Danny frowned as the spectators shuddered with displeasure. It wasn't supposed to be this cold at this time of year!

A stream of cold blue smoke slipped from Danny's mouth. The entire audience's cheers had by now turned to screams of fright. Something was definitely wrong...

"Oh, bummer... _You're_ telling _me!_" Danny muttered as the next scene unfolded in front of him.

* * *

**Alright, so if you want to know what tune it was the phoenix was singing, look up 'Berceuse and Finale.' It's the first phrase or two of the bassoon's solo I mentioned in here, but if you want to hear the whole thing, there you go! :D **

Super Danny: That fiend! Using _me _as a _pawn!_

Fun Danny: _Not_ cool, fruit loop!

**Anyways, this time I promise that I will update as quickly as possible! I really don't want to leave you hanging (especially with **_**this**_** ending!) for a long time again, so I promise! **

Castor: M'kay, advice, comments, whatever, is all welcomed with open arms!

**Until next time!**

***sing-song voice* Cliffhanger, hanging from a cliff! And that's why they call 'em cliffhanger!**


	7. Chapter Six: An Unexpected Party

***gives a euphoric sigh* Gem here! I've had a really pleasant week. **

Both Dannys: Too bad _**we **_haven't... *both glare pointedly at Gemini*

**Hehe... *gulp*... sorry, Danny... Er... If it makes you feel any better, neither has Vlad really! *giggles wanly***

Fun Danny: Well, that fruit loop deserves it, dude! But _we don't_!

Fred: *whispers* I suggest you change the subject.

George: Yes, that would be wise, Gem.

**Er... yes! Yay! I'm updating again! X)**

**I'd like to thank all of you who reviewed, once again! You know how much your comments mean to me! **

**It's still been a while, but I've thankfully finished this chapter faster than the last one. I'm working on it, though! Ahem... so, welcome to the next chapter! *laughs insanely* Hope you all enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Je ne suis pas la propriétaire de Danny Phantom!**

* * *

**Chapter**** Six  
****An ****Unexpected****Party**

A light bluish colored mist had begun to swiftly accumulate at the bottom of the bleachers; it stretched across the pavement of the basketball court as the temperatures continued to steadily drop. Danny felt his heart pounding as he heard the wind howl. There seemed to be a voice that was whispering over the gust, but he couldn't tell what it was saying.

A low rumble had now started below all of the ruckus caused by the panicking spectators, players, and the wind. The earth below had begun to faintly shake, just barely enough that it could be felt.

_**BANG!**_

Several of the lights that were lined up on either side of the court spontaneously exploded, sending a shower of sparks onto it and several of the players. They ducked and covered their heads in response, crying out in shock. The wind was beginning to calm down...

Danny glanced around him for a moment, but then nudged Sam and Tucker. He nodded at them—they seemed to understand. Danny looked around again to make sure no one was watching as they leaned over to cover him; he didn't really need to, though, seeing as everyone was paying attention to what was going on around them. He phased through the bleachers and landed on his feet below them. _Honestly... _he grumbled inwardly. _Don't these ghosts have anything __**better **__to do than terrorize Amity Park? __**And **__me? _He quickly changed to ghost mode, the cold temperatures (which were surely subzero by this point) suddenly not affecting him at all. He turned invisible and poked his head back through the bleachers to survey the scene, searching for the source of all this chaos.

Danny frowned. By now people were starting to get up from the bleachers and trying to get away, and it was quite difficult to see anything besides the people closest to him and the fog. Where was the ghost? Or was it ghost_**s**_? He couldn't tell.

"Where are you?" he murmured to himself, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was happening beyond the panicking crowd of high school students and the now thick wall of icy blue fog that stretched up at least twenty feet into the air. It was now hard for Danny to distinguish the figures directly in front of him, not to mention the center of the court, which seemed to be where the most commotion was taking place.

The half ghost finally let out a sigh of frustration before flying out of the bleachers and overhead to get a bird's eye view of the situation. Once he was above the clearly defined edge of the mist, he peered into it—a vain attempt at seeing anything besides the seemingly impenetrable wall of fog. Danny bit his lip as he strained to hear anything that stood out from the shrieks of the crowd, most of whom had succeeded in exiting the court by that moment. However, there were at least twenty or so people that were still struggling to find a way out, still lost in the mist.

There came a loud coughing sound as someone was almost literally choking on the thick moisture in the air, "...Help! I can't see!"

_That's... Star, isn't it? _Danny recognized the blonde cheerleader's voice and dove down into the solid fog, almost regretting it immediately. He could barely even see a foot in front of him. Just blue... everywhere! "Don't worry! I'm coming!" he shouted, blinking rapidly. The halfa whipped around, at a loss of where to go. There was a small but steady stream of blue mist pouring out of his mouth, joining the ghostly fog that was already surrounding him. He could still hear plenty of other people lost on the court, calling for help as well; it was making it really hard for him to pinpoint where each of them were, though. With these visibility conditions as well, he could run right past them and not even know!

After a few more moments of listening intently, Danny could tell that most of the sounds of panicking were starting to fade away as the crowd moved farther and farther away from the basketball court. Some of the people who were lost in the fog had fortunately found their way out by this point, leaving only around ten more to go.

"Ah! There you are, Paulina!" Danny heard someone say.

Somewhere to the back right of Danny, a sound of loud scuffling had started. Danny, encouraged by this, turned around and started running towards it. As he got closer, he could hear the voices clearer... A particularly loud sound was followed by both a cry of surprise and grunt as someone fell to the asphalt.

"Dash! Man, what was that for?!" came Kwan's indignant voice, sounding slightly confused at the same time.

Danny's triumphant smile faded a little as he heard this. It deepened into a worried frown when he heard another scuffle that was followed by a blast and another cry of shock from Kwan. The white-haired ghost boy finally leapt up into the air to fly faster towards the sounds of the skirmish. Something was definitely not right over there...

"_Les __Misérables__!_ What in the name of Victor Hugo is going on here?!" Mr. Lancer yelled from somewhere off in the distance, probably around the same place Dash and Kwan were.

The fog was starting to thin... just barely, but it was enough that Danny could sort of make out the shadows and outlines of three or so figures around five yards away from him. He slowed down and landed on the ground, proceeding by foot. One of the figures moved abruptly, as if in response to his presence, and Danny was blown backwards by another sudden gust of wind. This took Danny by surprise, since the wind had calmed somewhat after most of the mist had settled in—this sudden gale caught him off guard.

Danny landed on his back several yards away, the breath having been knocked out of him. His eyes widened when he saw that the mist within a ten-yard radius of him was suddenly clearing away with the wind.

Kwan was suspended almost a foot in the air by his arm, which was firmly in the grasp of the blond jock who had lifted him off of the ground. Dash's eyes glinted with malice at the sight of Danny, still lying on the pavement below, in shock. Danny blinked a few times, trying to digest the sight that was above him. What—no, _why _was he doing this? Then it hit him; that wasn't Dash. That _couldn't _have been Dash. For one... Dash had blue eyes... not green. And _two, _he was certain that Dash was quite strong, but not strong enough to lift a fellow jock off of the ground with only one arm! As if reading Danny's thoughts, Dash's grin widened and his green eyes literally flashed, glowing brightly for a fraction of a second.

Kwan was panting hysterically, almost on the verge of shrieking out of terror. It was quite obvious that he was desperately trying to keep calm—or, as calm as it was possible to be in this kind of predicament! After all, his best friend had just attacked him for no apparent reason—he thought that he had sufficient reason to be frightened. But, at any rate, he was failing miserably with his attempts for keeping cool. It was only a matter of moments before he completely lost it when Dash abruptly jumped off the ground, shooting up into the air almost like a geyser to hover at around forty feet overhead. It was now safe for Kwan to say that this wasn't his friend...

"AAAAAAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING LEMME DOWN LEMME DOWN LEMME DOWN!" he screeched repeatedly, his protruding eyes glued in horror at the hard asphalt far below him.

_What am I doing just __**sitting **__here?! _Danny scolded himself as he pulled himself shakily to his feet, still wheezing from the blow that the unexpected gust of wind had delivered. He cringed as he heard several other commotions back in the mist behind him. A blast, a scream of surprise, and then the wrathful yell of yet another familiar voice. Well, at least Valerie just confirmed to him that there was more than one ghost at the scene...

"Let him go!" Danny yelled, starting to fly up to where the other two were. However, he was then apprehended by someone latching onto his leg with an iron grip. It was Paulina, who Danny had barely even noticed until now. She was still clad in her cheerleader outfit, but her red and white pompoms had been carelessly cast aside to the ground. Her unnaturally-colored and piercing eyes were blazing with malicious delight. "Paulina? Wha—Ah!" She pulled him down forcefully with abnormal strength as he struggled to break away from her, but she succeeded in restraining him from moving anywhere.

"Hey, Danny!" Paulina cheekily grinned.

Suddenly Dash—or rather, the ghost who was overshadowing Dash—slackened his grip on Kwan's arm for the tiniest moment, allowing the athlete to slip a few inches. Just when it seemed just about impossible for him to get any louder, Kwan let out an earsplitting wail. It was a miracle that his voice hadn't gone hoarse yet! Danny froze, his mouth gaping.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" Dash asked, his lips being the ones that were moving, yet a different voice entirely was coming out. He mock-earnestly gave Kwan a look of concern. "I don't think Kwan here wants me to... do you Kwan?"

In response to this, Kwan clutched white-knuckled at Dash's arm with his free hand and tightened his hold like a python, up until the point that even the ghost who was occupying Dash's body gave a hiss of discomfort at the feeling. "Hoooo... I'll take that as a 'no'..." he winced before weakly chuckling and turning his attention back to the half ghost.

In the meantime, Danny had been squirming under Paulina's hold, desperately trying to get away from the high-maintenance cheerleader. He paused for a moment, thinking. If he could somehow force the ghost that was overshadowing Paulina to leave, he would be able to save Kwan... The halfa breathed in and out for a moment before closing his eyes to concentrate.

"Wait... what are you...?" Paulina trailed off as Danny suddenly phased back into her. The A-Lister blinked wide amber eyes in surprise for a moment, staggering backward slightly. "What?" she slurred, bringing up her hands to her head and closing her eyes; however, when she opened them again, instead of amber they were bright neon green. Paulina growled, her whole body shaking as a silent struggle occurred inside of her for a moment.

A girl with short brown hair was suddenly thrust out from Paulina, crashing down onto the pavement and skidding several more feet before coming to a stop, sprawled on the blacktop. Danny shortly followed, leaving an unconscious Paulina lying facedown on the ground. The half ghost glanced at the ghost girl before turning back to face Dash, after determining that she was still much too disoriented to still be a threat at the moment.

"I've told you once, and now I'll say it again! Let him go!" Danny yelled.

"Alright. If you insist." Dash shrugged before releasing his hold on Kwan's wrist. He then calmly pried Kwan's fingers off of his own arm, causing him to fall.

Danny jumped up into the air and flew up, catching Kwan before he hit the ground, effectively cutting off another scream. Quickly, he lowered back to the ground and set Kwan back on his feet again; after another rapid scan of their surroundings, he could see that the mist was really thin and easily seen through now that most of it had cleared away. All that was left of it was a slight bluish haze that was still lingering around the relatively small area.

"T-th-thank y-you!" Kwan shakily gasped before taking Danny's cue to run away—as fast as he possibly could. He cast his eyes fearfully back up to where his overshadowed friend was still floating overhead before turning back the other way, scrambling off in the direction of the school building.

Dash folded his arms across his chest, a slight crestfallen pout on his face as he watched Kwan run away. "Aw... you ruined my fun, halfa! You really _are _a killjoy, aren't you...?" He clicked his tongue sorrowfully as he slowly shook his head. However, the expression didn't last long when he saw Danny assume a fighting stance; the frown on the jock's face suddenly flipped upside down into a challenging smile, his eyes narrowing with excitement at the prospect of a new fight.

"Only when it comes to ghosts who cause trouble for their entertainment! Now get out of Dash!" the young hybrid yelled, hurtling up towards him.

Dash's grin widened predatorily as he hunched over, waiting for the ghost boy to deliver the first blow. Danny didn't disappoint him, either—as soon as he reached the overshadowed jock, the ghost boy tackled him, bringing both of them closer to ground level. Dash managed to free himself from Danny's grip once they were only about five feet from the surface of the court and lit his fists with a dark green hue of energy.

Danny pulled out the Fenton Thermos and held it close to him, ready to uncap it and capture the ghost. He turned around rapidly to face him only to be caught in the chest by the resulting blast. He was painfully knocked to the ground, leaving the asphalt cracked where the impact was made. He coughed as he lay dazed once again on the ground. The half ghost could vaguely discern the multiple sounds of fights and familiar voices screaming from various spots all over the area. He had to get to them before they got hurt...

Heaving himself back up to his feet, Danny growled as he noticed the state of the Thermos... which had apparently been caught by the blast and was now dented and smoking. A few feeble sparks were emitting from it. Well, there went that idea... He reluctantly hid it away and turned invisible, causing Dash's eyes to widen with slight surprise. However, his eyes never left the half ghost since he could still sense where he was. "What in the world is he doing that for?" he muttered as his eyes followed him charging back up to him once again. Maybe the boy wasn't aware that he could still tell where he was. Dash's perplexed expression left his face, replaced by the triumphant grin that he had been wearing previously.

However, it wasn't Danny's goal to give the ghost a surprise attack as much as it was to force him to get out of Dash's body. Danny braced himself before using the same move as he had on Plasmius when he had been overshadowing his father all those months ago at the college reunion—he seemingly phased straight through Dash's body, though at the same time he was shoving the unknown ghost out as well. Dash fell the rest of the short distance to the ground, landing on his back face up next to Paulina.

The large ghost cried out in shock as he fell to the ground, rolling over a couple times before he came to a stop. Danny clenched his fists before swooping down to pin him to the pavement.

"Now, who are you and what do you want?!"

The large light brown-haired ghost stayed silent for a moment as he lay regaining his composure. He narrowed his beady green eyes with hatred before tensing his muscles. "I've come to... Ah, _Tarrant! _There you are!" his gaze shifted to the side of Danny to peer behind him.

Danny quickly glanced behind him to see who the brawny ghost had been talking to and caught a glimpse of a thin gray and white-haired ghost before his throat was suddenly in the grasp of a tight fist. He gasped out as he was abruptly yanked off of the large ghost he had pinned. It seemed that while Danny had been distracted he had taken advantage of his slackened hold. The green and brown-clad ghost tossed him overhead with ease, sending him crashing into the bleachers on the other side.

Dash, meanwhile, sat up groggily, clutching his head with one hand and his back with the other. "Oooh... my head... What... where...?" His once again blue eyes widened as they finally started to soak in his surroundings. "Ah!" he let out a yell as he saw the two ghosts in front of him.

"What's happened so far?" the larger one asked as he stood up again.

"Well, we've run into some difficulties, Marsden... some other ghost-hunting girl dressed in red's crashed the party... Lorelei's taking care of her." Tarrant spoke rapidly, almost so fast that it was hard to digest everything he was saying. He lowered himself from the air so he was eyelevel with the tall ghost. "And Flavius and Moria are trying to subdue Phantom's three human helpers."

As Danny peeled himself from the bleachers gingerly, he grinned slightly as he overheard that last particular sentence of their conversation. At least Sam and Tucker were alright and putting up a fight... but... who was the third helper they were talking about? Probably Jazz.

Marsden glanced at Danny and then to Paulina and Dash, still too petrified to move. "Alright. You know what to do—I'll see you in a bit..." Tarrant rapidly nodded in understanding before turning back toward Dash. The large green-eyed ghost slowly turned back to face Danny, chuckling mildly.

Growling, Danny stood back up and glared back at Marsden, who gave a determined smile in response. "Now that _that's _over with, where were we again?"

"I was about to kick your butt." Danny gave a cheeky smirk.

"Heh," Marsden's eyes narrowed at the bold statement. "You're hilarious—really. But we'll see how long you can keep that smile up." He cracked his knuckles threateningly as he leisurely began approaching the ghost boy.

Danny held out his arms wide open, as if to say "bring it on" to the tanned and strong ghost. Marsden didn't disappoint, either. This specter was about as tall as Danny's father (give or take a couple inches), but while he was still a lot thinner in comparison, he still looked rather menacing with all of his muscular attributes. One would think that he would move slower due to his large size, but the strong ghost was a lot more agile than he looked. In fact, it kind of took Danny off guard. Marsden punched Danny swiftly in the stomach, making him double over. Just as quickly, he grabbed the shorter ghost by his left wrist and swung him up over his shoulder and around before flinging him into the ground, leaving him winded from the sudden blow.

The ghost folded his arms and stepped back as he patiently watched Danny regain his breath, a soft and complacent smile gracing his lips. Danny pulled himself up to his feet for the... what was it...? Fourth time in a row? Yeah, that sounded about right. He let out a low whistle as he glanced down at the place he had landed, which had a small impression where the ghost had flung him.

"Strong, this one is..." he raised an eyebrow as he muttered to himself. "Better start being more careful..."

Danny's eyebrows creased in determination as he lit his fists with energy. He charged straight for the ghost again, shooting a large ecto-blast at him. It caught Marsden in the shoulder instead of the chest when he started moving out of the way. Danny continued by throwing a punch to his jaw, but his opponent caught his fist in his own hand. He increased pressure on the fist, causing Danny to wince before being thrown to the ground once again.

The half ghost hybrid groaned as he stood; _now that makes it five times..._ Danny pushed away the humiliating thought.

"Whoa! You're fast!" Danny finally gasped out in almost complete exhaustion; although the halfa had absolutely no intentions of giving up any time soon. The teenager put up another weak fighting position.

Marsden shrugged contentedly, approaching at a leisurely pace. It seemed as if he was now satisfied and that his job there was almost done. "Well, I _have _been known to fool people into thinking otherwise, but I'm nowhere near as quick as Tarrant, I'm afraid..." He gestured to where the lanky ghost had been only a moment before with Dash and Paulina.

The teenage hybrid blinked, puzzled, before turning around to see what the other had been trying to point out. It was then that his heart practically did a back flip in horror. Tarrant was nowhere in sight.

But neither was Dash.

* * *

Sam never really liked sports in the first place. Why was she at the game, then, you ask? Well, that was actually a pretty good question. She supposed that the only reason she was there was out of mere curiosity at the idea that the teachers were playing as well. That was the only reason. End of story. Even though she liked neither Dash nor Mr. Lancer very much, the prospect of seeing an extremely hilarious game between them made her get past that fact.

Now that the game had been interrupted—to put it bluntly, she didn't really know how she should feel about it. Relieved? Well, a little. But, that was before things had taken an extreme turn for the worse.

At first Sam had just thought it would be a minor disturbance that Danny could easily take care of, because the wind and fog were the only abnormal factors in the situation. But, once it got to the point that the miasma was so thick that she couldn't see a foot in front of her face, she started to get a little worried. Then there were the small earthquakes and the exploding lights.

Yep... this was more serious than it had appeared. After Danny had left to find out what was going on, Sam and Tucker had started off by helping people find their way out of the mist in an orderly fashion. Of course, they were almost just as stumped as everyone else. By the time they heard the obvious sounds of a ghost fight that was going on somewhere near center court, they had fortunately been able to help as many people as possible. But, when they heard the unmistakable scream of a familiar jock, that was really when all heck broke loose.

"...Was that... Kwan?" Tucker asked, turning to Sam questioningly. The two of them were just outside of the basketball court, standing on the grass behind one set of bleachers. He worriedly wiped off the condensation that had accumulated on the screen of his PDA. The techno-geek didn't want all of this moisture to ruin his precious equipment...

"I..." Sam began, but her perplexed expression soon turned to one of shock as she saw something out of the corner of her eye. "_Duck!_"

She tackled Tucker to the ground just as a cerulean blast of energy soared through the space Tucker's head had been taking up just a second before. It continued on to smash into the blacktop several yards away.

"Ah!" Tucker was the first one to see the female ghost that had been the one to send the attack.

The blue-clad specter was floating around ten feet overhead, hovering upright with her feet parallel to the ground. She giggled and shrugged euphorically, causing her wavy white hair to ripple slightly over her shoulders. "Oh, forgive me! My aim is so terrible!"

Her blue eyes darkened considerably as she lit up her hands again with an almost navy shade of energy. Sam pulled out her wrist ray to aim it at the ghost; however, it turned out that Sam and Tucker didn't really need to worry about this new threat. Another blast took out the ghost girl from even farther up in the air.

"It's a good thing mine_ isn't_, then!" a red blur zoomed across Sam and Tucker's line of vision, making a beeline for the surprised ghost.

The ghost girl regained her composure, scowling as this new opponent charged towards her.

"Now, I don't know what makes you think that you ghosts can just do whatever you want, but you're in for one heck of a surprise!" Valerie yelled at the top of her lungs.

As Valerie delivered another blow, Sam cringed, "Well, that settles it. I'm glad I'm not her..."

Tucker laughed in agreement. "Me neither, but then again, I think she had it coming!"

"Amen!" another entity said in agreement. Tucker frowned in confusion as both of the teenagers looked around to locate the source of the voice. "Boo!" A red-clad ghost suddenly popped up right in front of Tucker's face, causing the techno-geek to jump, startled. The ghost laughed at his reaction, doubling over from the apparent hilarity.

Immediately upon seeing the ghost, Sam just as swiftly raised her arm and blasted him with the wrist ray. The ghost stopped laughing. "Why you little...!" he growled, his red eyes blazing with fury.

"Flavius! Stop messing around! You _know _what we're supposed to be doing!" yet another ghost girl suddenly appeared, this time dressed in black with short dark hair. Her gray eyes were emphasized as they flared with energy.

Flavius flinched with apparent irritation, yet Sam could tell that he was also hiding a slightly intimidated manner behind his tone. "_Always _Moria... _always _pretending to be the boss just because she's the magician's _favorite..._"

"Uuuugh... Honestly, you are _the_ most hot-headed ghost I've ever had the misfortune of meeting! And _yes,_ that is including Melania Dark, _**and **_the Lunch Lady, _**and—**_" Moria began listing off of her fingers.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Flavius sarcastically retorted, letting a deep red flame engulf one of his hands.

"Shut it or I'll make sure you regret it for the next few nights..." Moria glared threateningly at the other ghost. "Now _get _them!"

Her words were almost drowned out as Valerie continued battling with Lorelei. A particularly loud blast hit Valerie's hover board as she turned it upward to block the attack. However, Flavius understood them perfectly.

"Okay," Tucker winced as both Flavius and Moria's attentions turned back to them. "Can we panic now?"

Sam bit her lip as she raised her wrist ray once again. She doubted that they could take both of them... And it sounded as if Danny was a little too occupied with something else at that moment. Oh dear...

But, right then, something a little unexpected happened. "Sam! Tucker!" Jazz came from out of the fog—which was just now starting to clear—and jumped up to latch on to Moria's foot. Moria's eyes widened as she lost her balance in the air; as she was dragged down to the ground, her arms flailed to the side and whacked Flavius across the face. The male ghost gave an indignant cry as he was also knocked down when Moria careened sideways into him. Jazz bit her lip awkwardly as she tried to hold on to the ghost girl's foot—she obviously didn't know that her action would really have a domino affect, but she couldn't really complain about the results.

Sam and Tucker just watched dumbstruck for the moment, but then burst out laughing as they saw the two ghosts piled on top of each other on the ground.

"Er... what do you think we should do...?" Jazz stood up and ran to her younger brother's best friends. Tucker cast a wary eye at the two ghosts that were starting to get up again. They, in the meantime, were starting their own tedious argument that went somewhat along the lines of "Watch where you swing your arms!"

"Hold them off until Danny gets here, I guess. He has the Thermos." Sam muttered. "We might not really have any of the big weapons, but I think we can manage to distract them until he shows up—or Valerie, when she gets done with _that _ghost."

"Yeah," Tucker reasoned, "After all, we're off to a promising start..." he eyed Flavius and Moria, who were continuing their shouting match, oblivious to the three humans and what they were planning amongst themselves.

"_Jazz! Sam! Tucker!_"

All of a sudden Danny came rushing over to them, worriedly looking around. He landed next to them, panting. He'd just barely gotten away from Marsden, and it was a good thing, too.

"What is it, Danny?" Sam asked.

Danny swallowed carefully, giving another glance behind him to check and see if he was still chasing him. "Dash is gone. One of the ghosts has taken him and I don't know where they went. I—"

The ringing of a cell phone interrupted his sentence. He jumped before reaching inside of his black and white jumpsuit to pull it out. His eyes widened as he checked the caller ID. "Oh no... not now!"

"Who is it?" Jazz asked.

"Mom and Dad. I can't just let it go to voicemail or they'll think something terrible has happened!" he mentally slapped himself for saying that. Oh, who was he kidding? Something terrible _was_ happening!

He bit his lip before accepting the call. He closed his eyes nervously as he put the phone up to his ear. "Hello?" he forced himself to sound as casual as possible.

"_Hey, Danny-boy! How's everything going over there?_" Jack's voice boomed from the other end of the line.

Danny cringed as Valerie gave a particularly loud scream followed by an even more thunderous blast. "Hehe... hey, Dad! Everything is absolutely _great _over here! How are you and Mom doing over there in England? Is anything wrong? I mean, I know it must be pretty... er... late over there, right?"

"_We're doing fine..._" Maddie's voice slowly said from the other side. He must have been on speaker. "_We've just had... a really grueling schedule today and didn't have much free time until now. Is...? Is something going __**on **__over there? It sounds really loud..._"

"Oh... that?" Danny gave a weak chuckle, trying his best to think of an explanation to wave it off. "Um... it's, well... an action movie! Yeah, Sam and Tucker are over and we're watching an action movie!" He desperately grasped at the idea as soon as it came to mind.

"_Well, turn it down! We can barely hear you!_" Jack called.

"Er... I will in a minute! As soon as I... find the... the remote!" Danny anxiously evaded a wayward blast coming from Valerie and Lorelei's fight.

"_That... sounds a little loud for just being on the television..._" Maddie almost suspiciously responded to the sound.

"Um... that's because we're watching it in Vlad's screening room! Yeah! HD and surround sound; it's great! It's so realistic it's almost like we're actually there, you know? It's amazing!"

Flavius and Moria finally seemed to realize that they had gotten sidetracked. They turned towards the four teenagers, beginning to focus their wrath at them instead. Jazz yelped loudly as she dodged a red blast of ecto-energy.

"_Wow! That sound quality really __**is**__ great!_" Jack exclaimed excitedly. "_Remind me to watch a movie in there when we get back!_"

"_Alright then..." _Maddie finally seemed to accept the reason. "_Well, hope you all have a good rest of the night!_"

"Hehe... yeah, you too! Seeya!" Danny replied before hanging up as quickly as he could. And it was a good thing he did it right then, too.

"Ah!" Danny let out a scream as he was suddenly blasted to the ground. As soon as he made impact with the ground it was as if the earth softened and opened up, partially swallowing him before hardening once again. His arms, torso, and most of his legs were submerged beneath the grass and soil.

There was Marsden, watching with glee from overhead. He had the unconscious Paulina draped over his shoulder. "Come on, you three!" he shouted to Moria, Flavius, and Lorelei. However, it was still quite a challenge for Lorelei to give the brawny ghost her attention. "Wrap it up already!"

"What are you doing?" Danny cried out, trying to phase out of the pile of earth he was trapped in, but to no such luck.

Lorelei nodded in frustration before forming a shield of blue energy to block one of Valerie's attacks. It bounced right off of it and directed itself right back at the red-clad ghost-hunter. It struck Valerie on the shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain. Lorelei then took hold of the opportunity of her distraction to form water around her hands and phase them inside Valerie's hover board. The water had an immediate effect, short-circuiting the wires and causing Valerie to be shocked from the malfunctioning hover board. Finally, Valerie fainted from the sheer amount of electricity flowing through her body and collapsed into Lorelei's arms.

The ghost girl that had been earlier overshadowing Paulina, Gaia, had in the meantime snuck up behind Sam and twisted the Goth girl's arms behind her back, tearing the wrist ray off of her arm and casting it to the ground disdainfully.

"Ah!" she cried out in shock as Gaia clubbed her hard against the head, causing her to black out.

Flavius at that same time took hold of Tucker, and Moria of Jazz. "Hey!" Tucker yelled indignantly.

"Get your hands off me!" Jazz shouted desperately. However, needless to say, none of them followed the command.

"No!" Danny continued his struggle against the earth that was binding him, getting more and more urgent with every passing moment.

Marsden waved hastily at the others, "Now get going! Quick!"

The others followed his order, carrying off the captives back in the direction of Vlad's house as Marsden lingered behind with Danny. "No! Let them go! Why are you doing this?!" he shouted, actually managing to make a crack in the durable earth that had hardened around him.

"Oh..." Marsden frowned a little at seeing Danny already making progress on escaping from his earthy prison. However, he regained his composure just as quickly. "You'll see soon enough, halfa... Catch me if you can, kid!"

With a chuckle, Marsden turned on his heel and flew off after the other five.

"What? No! No, you get back here!" Danny shouted furiously after him, struggling all the while. But, after several more seconds of thrashing around, Danny finally tried his best to form ecto-energy around his hands to blast through the earth. It worked after a moment or two, only cracking the soil at first, but then giving away and blasting out.

Danny's eyes blazed bright green as he growled, not wasting any more time in pursuing the fading speck in the distance that Marsden was by this point.

It took a while to catch up, but Danny finally did so right as they reached the woods behind Vlad's estate. After aiming a blast at Marsden, the strong ghost had glanced over his shoulder in an amused manner, laughing. He put on a burst of speed to tease the hybrid. By now Danny had started to get more and more tired, and the sorcerer's apprentice knew that. He lowered himself down into the trees as he continued, forcing Danny to do the same.

"Hey! Let Paulina go right now!" Danny boldly yelled.

Marsden smirked and remained silent as he suddenly took a sharp right in the trees, effectively confusing the halfa. "I will if you catch me first, Danny Phantom!" he abruptly yelled.

"This isn't a game, dude! Let her go! I mean it! Or else!"

Danny had lost sight of the ghost. He continued chasing all the same, though getting a little worried. It was dark, cold, and he had apparently lost the ghost he had been pursuing... Which way had he gone? He slowed down and came to a stop, not wanting to continue until he knew which direction he had gone off in.

"This time I mean business, dude! What do you want?! Why are you doing this?!" Danny yelled at the top of his lungs, turning around on the spot, trying to determine the direction in which the other ghost had absconded with Paulina. Just what he needed... to lose this ghost _and _his friends and peers! Why? Why were these ghosts doing this? Were they using his classmates as bait to lure him into an even bigger trap? If only he knew _who _exactly these ghosts were working for—the only clue he had was the firebird's warning. _The sorcerer... I came back to warn you that he is also after you. He is planning something against you._ Danny now had a good reason to believe that this... sorcerer... was the one who had sent these six to Amity Park. This must have been what he had been planning against him—for his goons to kidnap his friends and peers! Yeah... those six ghosts must have been his mercenaries or even apprentices. It sounded reasonable.

"To extend my master's greetings!" Danny heard the ghost's voice calling back to him from far off, as if to further confirm his thoughts. Unfortunately for the teenager, it sounded as if it was coming from multiple directions, so it was still hard to tell which way he should go.

There was a deep silence for several moments as the crickets continued chirping and Danny waited desperately for a response from any of the ghosts. Finally Danny lost it—he picked a direction and began flying ahead at top speed while weaving in and out through the trees. "Jazz?! Sam?! Tucker! Valerie...!" he called out the names of each of the six that had been kidnapped repeatedly, but still all he got in response was nothing.

Finally after what seemed to eternity, Danny began to run out of energy; he unwillingly slowed down and lowered to the ground, bending over to catch his breath. Oh no... he lost them. He lost them!

"Oh no..." Danny despairingly whispered to himself as he continued looking frustrated into the trees surrounding him. _Congratulations, Fenton... your friends are once again in trouble because of you... _a cynical voice said in his head. Danny put both of his hands up to his head and ran his gloved fingers through his white hair as he tried his best to ignore that voice. However, the halfa failed quite miserably; he let out a frightened whimper, his vision blurring. He gulped nervously, panting as he continued his panicking. "No, no no! It's my fault... all... my fault. If I'd have just…"

The half ghost suddenly forced himself to breath in and out deeply, calming himself down as best as possible. "...It's alright. Just keep it cool. You'll find them. You'll find them..." He repeated it a couple more times under his breath, as if the more he heard this message the more true it would become.

"Aw... having trouble finding me, Danny?" Marsden's voice suddenly issued from the side of Danny.

Danny whipped his head up to see Marsden floating off a short distance away, Paulina slung over his shoulder with a glowing green gag covering her mouth.

And within a millisecond of seeing the male ghost, the fear that had been pent up in Danny only a moment before was suddenly transformed into rage. The halfa's eyes blazed as he suddenly felt adrenaline boost his energy.

Marsden's grin widened as he turned back around to continue leading the boy onwards. The teenager growled as he shot a blast of green energy aimed at the ghost's head. The tan and broad shouldered specter evaded as it came close to hitting its mark. "Whoo! You ought to be more careful where you aim, kid! You might just hit _Paulina _here!" (Danny bit his lip worryingly in response) Marsden continued calling over his shoulder, "Don't worry, though, we've almost reached our destination! It's _straight ahead_!"

Danny didn't have much time to wonder what the ghost was talking about before he suddenly halted where he was. The ghost disappeared right before Danny caught up, leaving Danny slightly baffled. It appeared that the large ghost had only been flying so the halfa could follow... He frowned before speeding up as fast he could. Danny could see that there was a small break in the dense trees up ahead, where it opened up into a small clearing. He could barely see something in the center of it, but it was hard to identify exactly what it was in the dark, even with his heightened senses that came with being half ghost. Well, it appeared that he had reached the 'destination' that the ghost had been leading him to...

Danny emerged into the clearing...

* * *

**Phew! Our favorite halfa is about to get in yet **_**another**_** sticky situation that he has to clean up. As usual. Well, let's correct that—he **_**is **_**in another sticky situation. As usual. Anyways, advice, opinions, comments, etc. would be wonderful, as usual! Until next time, folks!**


	8. Chapter Seven: Just a Game

**Hehe... Well, hello once again, readers! Please bear with me! If you want to know what's been keeping me busy this time, it can be summed up in one word: homework! Once again. It's been even more severe than last time, since the end of the year is nigh and I need to make sure my grades are what I want them to be. But, thankfully I have finally found enough time for another update. Thank you once again, those of you who took the time to review, for sharing your thoughts with me. **

Muses: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! *throw confetti*

***sigh* I can always count on you guys to give me a heart attack! Yes, I am now officially old enough to get a license! Well, anyways, I really hope you all enjoy this next chapter! Hope to see you at the bottom! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.**

* * *

**Chapter Seven  
****Just a Game**

_The ghost disappeared right before Danny caught up, leaving Danny slightly baffled. It appeared that the large ghost had only been flying so the halfa could follow... He frowned before speeding up as fast he could. Danny could see that there was a small break in the dense trees up ahead, where it opened up into a small clearing. He could barely see something in the center of it, but it was hard to identify exactly what it was in the dark, even with his heightened senses that came with being half ghost. Well, it appeared that he had reached the 'destination' that the ghost had been leading him to..._

_Danny emerged into the clearing..._

He slowed down dramatically, almost coming to a complete stop as he came closer to the huge landmark in the center of the clearing. The ground sloped down steeply at the edge of it, almost vertically for around three feet until it became level again, causing the clearing to resemble a large bowl. His rage had died for the moment, instead replaced by a genuine feeling of both puzzlement and anxiety. It wasn't just because of the fact that Marsden had just disappeared and left him high and dry without a way following, either. It was also because of the fact that the ghost had led him here in the first place.

He proceeded cautiously, slowly soaking in every detail of his surroundings. He didn't want to be caught off guard if there _was _an ambush waiting for him in this clearing. The whole area around the clearing was practically charred. Danny could only assume that that had been the result of the panicking phoenix desperately trying to fight off her pursuers.

"Well, I guess Vlad was only exaggerating about more than one _wildfire..._. So far this is the only place that seems to be burnt half to heck. Well, I'm actually glad that's the case. I wouldn't be surprised if he was only saying that to push me into doing what he wanted. Which I still don't know what that is. I swear he is _such _a fruit loop!" After scanning around the area and sensing no ghosts, he concluded that it was safe to relax a little and study what was in front of him.

A fifteen-foot high rock formation made of solid dark gray rock loomed over him, looking innocent enough as the moonlight reflected off of it. However, the large boulder gave off a strange and almost ominous feeling. Danny didn't like it. Not to mention it looked really out of place—like it had been placed exactly in the middle of the clearing on purpose for a particular reason—to cover something, maybe? Yes?

Danny blinked his green eyes a couple times before landing on the ground, starting by walking around the strange landmark. It was around thirty feet in perimeter, jutting out of the ground. It was wrapped in brambles, weeds, and ivy; they were pretty thick, but he could still manage to see through them to the rock underneath. The weeds covered a good portion of the formation—the whole bottom two thirds of it. The hybrid frowned in confusion. He folded his arms and panned up and down the rock formation once again.

"Why did those ghosts lead me _here_?" Danny glanced around him once again. He was sure it wasn't a trap anymore. At least, not in an ambush sense. The white-haired ghost boy continued his walk around the peculiar formation. "Aaaand... there's nothing. Gee, for some evil magician ghost that wants me to find him, he sure isn't making anything easy for me... What else is new?"

So... getting back to the idea that this rock formation was 'covering' something... maybe it was the portal that phoenix ghost had been talking about earlier? It must have been inside it somehow. Maybe he could phase through the boulders to see...

Danny reached forward to phase through the brambles and rock, only to jerk his hand back. The seemingly ordinary weeds suddenly pulsed with a poisonous dark green hue of light when it sensed the half ghost's ectosignature approaching it, instantly and visibly buffering in defense. It coiled and drew even tighter to the surface of the stone beneath it, thorns bristling. The halfa slightly paused and pulled back his hand hesitantly, biting his lip. Something—probably the robust, thick, and frankly hazardous look of the weeds—told him that this wouldn't be an easy endeavor.

However, pure stubbornness won out, and not wasting one more moment pondering on the matter, Danny's eyes narrowed in determination. His hands lit up with bright green energy as he aimed an ecto-blast at the weeds. The plant gave a slight shudder at the attack before drawing itself up. The ecto-energy caused the weeds to briefly glow even brighter before settling down, this time looking even thicker than they were before.

Danny's jaw slowly dropped from indignation as he gaped at the plant. Did that weed just... _absorb _his attack? When the plant suddenly spewed the ecto-energy back at him, the halfa didn't have enough time to evade or go intangible, and as a result was blasted back ten yards into a tree at the edge of the clearing. Dazed, he mumbled irritatedly to himself, "Yes. It _did_."

Grumbling, Danny got back up and marched back to the rock formation, folding his arms while intensely glaring at the weeds; they were still pulsating slightly with the same, almost radioactive, hue of green.

"What's the purpose for this?!" Letting his arms loosely fall to his sides, he tightened his gloved hands into fists and kicked the rock out of sheer frustration. In retaliation to this violent gesture, one of the thicker vines fluidly looped itself around Danny's ankle, yanked him into the air, and threw him back to the ground.

Danny lay spread-eagled on the ground, eyes wide as he tried to catch his breath again. After a moment of stunned silence in this position, he finally let out a shuddering breath. "That is one _evil_ weed..." he muttered as he sat up to furiously pick the thorns from his boot. Once he had finished, he stood up yet again and finished his walk around the rock formation.

Stopping back at the place he had started, he started tapping his toe thoughtfully against the ground. The only sound that Danny could seem to hear was the soft breeze overhead that was rustling the leaves at the tops of the trees. As this sound continued as a soft background noise, Danny's eyes snapped forward all of a sudden; his muscles tensed. He didn't know why, but he swore that he felt someone watching him. The hybrid inwardly scoffed at the sensation; after all, his ghost sense hadn't gone off. And no human in their right mind would be this far off into the woods, not to mention at night. But, he still couldn't shake off that feeling of unease, that he could still feel someone's gaze on him. His eyes slowly peered to his left.

_What was that?_ The halfa heard the small rustle of vegetation, barely loud enough to hear, but it was enough to trigger Danny's next reaction. He whipped around, eyes flashing brightly. There was nothing there.

...

Everything was silent. Danny finally let out his breath, rolling his eyes and turning back around as he laughed at himself for being so stupid. "_Whoo_... Bad memories. Just really bad memories," He muttered, cringing at the memory of a wolf looming out of the darkness towards him.

The faint smile still on his lips, he went back to staring at the boulder, almost blankly. Maybe if he just looked at it for a while longer, something would jump out at him and he would see whatever it was that he was supposed to see! Danny kept on repeating the thought that this wizard couldn't possibly expect him to find him if he didn't actually make it possible to. The cogs were turning in his brain; however, the grin finally faded after a moment or two of having no ideas or epiphanies coming to him. Well, he had absolutely no clue what to do. _So… what happens now_? he thought. Worry was beginning to gnaw at his insides once again. Every second he spent tarrying here was another second that his loved ones were spending with those ghosts that had kidnapped them. He let out a shaky breath, rubbing his hands together nervously.

"Okay... let's go with Plan B." he said slowly, flying up towards the top of the mound to see if he could phase through the rock where the weeds weren't there to guard it. Once he lightly landed on the uneven surface of the rock, he willed himself to go intangible. However, seeing when he didn't go through, his frown deepened.

"Well, now I'm out of ideas," the half-ghost sighed in resignation as he kneeled down on one knee and knocked on the boulder half-heartedly with a loosely clenched fist. Standing back up while still staring down at the large boulder beneath his feet, his facial expression twisted into a furious one in a split second. He threw back his head to call out as loud as he could, "Well?! Don't you want me to follow you, dude?! How do you expect me to **do **that now, huh?" And, just as he said "do," he stomped as hard as he could on the rock, involuntarily sending a wave of spectral energy into it.

_**CRACK!**_

Danny's eyes snapped open. The rock suddenly gave a violent shudder underneath his feet, causing him to lose his balance, and, after a fraction of a second of fruitless struggling to regain his footing, he fell down to a sitting position with a cry of surprise.

"Oooh..." he groaned before suddenly remembering just what had happened and hastily straightening up. Blinking, he looked at the rock beneath him with a bewildered look. "What the...?"

The boulder was glowing a blood-like shade of red. Well, not really _all _of the boulder, but a swirling pattern that was covering the entire formation that had not been there just a few seconds previously. Raising his arms from his sides uncertainly, Danny quickly scrambled to his feet. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck and on his arms prickle from the immense amount of ecto-energy that was radiating from it. Eyes widening, he flew back down to the ground to observe what was happening from a greater distance. Better to be safe than sorry if that glowing thing was a bad sign...

After a moment of apprehensively eyeing the sight before him, he shifted his footing uneasily while turning his head around and panning the whole clearing. His eyes landed once again onto the rock formation.

The teenage hybrid stopped suddenly as he noticed something beneath all of the ivy and weeds—something glowing blue. Well, that was different from the rest. Danny squinted with his mouth slightly ajar; he tilted his head before hesitantly approaching the rock once again. He reached towards the brambles to tear them away to see just what exactly was beneath them. The bright red glow suddenly began to diminish rapidly until it had disappeared completely, leaving the rock bare once more with the exception of whatever it was that was glowing blue. As if in response to this, the green glow that exuded from the brambles and ivy that were guarding the boulder also waned until almost none was left. Almost in a hurry to comply, the weeds submissively curled out of the way of the hybrid's view.

"Oh..." Danny chuckled lightly with surprise. Then, glancing around the clearing, he sheepishly called out to no one in particular, "Um... thanks!"

Giving the plant one last withering glare, Danny turned his attention interestedly to the glowing symbols on the rock. "Hehe... guess all I had to do was ask... Now, what does this mean?" the halfa's newfound smile faltered as he registered that these were no English words. They were slightly higher than his head, the letters looking foreign. "Maybe it's Russian? I don't know..." He slowly brushed his gloved hand over the surface of the smooth boulder. As a reaction to his touch, the blue letters rippled before suddenly contracting and drawing all of them to a single speck. Then, from that infinitesimal point, it rapidly expanded once more over the face of the dull gray stone, this time in English:

"Choose wisely..." Danny creased his eyebrows in confusion as he read the message aloud to himself. _What is __**that**__ supposed to...? _The thought trailed off. The gray rock directly in front of him lost its opaqueness as the message faded, allowing Danny to see right through to the interior of the rock. What he saw immediately expelled all of the lingering confusion from Danny's mind, a renewed sense of urgency now replacing it.

As soon as he crossed the threshold of the small cavern-like place, whatever remained of the rock behind him disappeared, leaving an opening where it had been previously.

The young hybrid blinked several times as his eyes adjusted to the light that unexpectedly shone in them as he entered. It was a greenish glow that was emanating from a pool, about eight feet in diameter in the center of the cave. Danny glanced curiously around the small grotto before shifting his gaze back to the pool. The unnatural green glow had such an amazing, almost mesmerizing effect on the place. Every ripple the water made sent swirls of darker hues of green from the center spreading outwards to the edge; the light was distorted by the water as it shone through it and playfully danced around the dark walls. A smoothly carved ring of granite surrounded the pool, serving as a perfectly round rim to contain the water. The same symbols that had been etched into the rock formation outside were also impressed in the ring, repeating itself all the way around.

Shaking his head a little, Danny wiped the curiosity from his face as his eyebrows set themselves in a resolute manner. Done observing at the moment, he leaned over the pool to peer into the deep bright green water.

"Bingo…" Danny muttered before hopping up onto the speckled light gray rim of the deep pool. However, before he could bring himself to jump into the portal, he bit his lip and hesitated.

Something wasn't right. This was apparent to Danny; well, not that anything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours _was _right in the first place. But, as he leaned over the pool and stared down into the depths, _something_... he wasn't quite sure _what..._ but something about this tiny cave was definitely off.

_Why do you have such a horrible feeling about this one, Fenton?_ Danny asked himself, his heartbeat getting considerably faster. _Because you have no idea what you're getting into, that's why..._ He couldn't help but wonder if he should wait before acting. Was it a bad idea? It would be bad if he just blundered on in without thinking. But what else could he do? It's not like he would be any better prepared otherwise. And he had to get to his friends and his sister—well, _and _his... _other _fellow classmates—before they got hurt!

_If they aren't already..._ Danny's eyes widened as the horrifying though entered his mind. As awful as it was to think that, that was the thought that settled his decision.

"Alright then..." Danny took a deep breath to calm himself down and clear his head. The last thing he needed to do at that moment was to panic. The nagging feeling at the back of his mind started working even more furiously. Perhaps it was some magical ward this wizard ghost had put up as a last defense against whoever managed to get this far.

Slightly shifting his footing on the smooth rim, he clenched his hands into fists. _Well... here goes nothing..._ and taking one last breath, dived headfirst into the water.

* * *

After seeing the boy enter into the small opening in the rock formation, Vlad finally allowed himself to become visible once more. He lingered, only pausing, however, to have a moment of satisfaction before following after his younger counterpart. The faintest hint of a grin touched his face as he breathed in deeply. The billionaire had been caught off guard when he had heard the news of what was going on (a sudden spike in Daniel's heart rate, levels of spectral energy being expended, etc. had been his clue) so he had had little time to dawdle.

"Here we are..." Vlad sighed, his red eyes taking a quick sweep around the surrounding area. He paused as his eyes landed on something green and small halfway between him and the base of the rock formation. It would have been difficult to notice, and he probably would have missed it if he hadn't been looking for something in the first place. Plasmius quickly flew over to it.

Picking up the feather, he shook his head while letting out a slow exhale. "Well, at least I know that this is definitely the place where those worthless birdbrains got lost..." Quite a few of the vultures' green feathers were scattered all over the clearing—just sparsely enough to easily be overlooked. The serious expression on his face morphed into a feral grin as he turned back to the entrance of the small cave, where the faint green glow from the portal was showing.

* * *

Just as soon as Danny had crossed the threshold of the portal, the whole world flipped—quite literally. Gravity had decided to reverse itself, and just when Danny had thought that he was facing downward, he found his sense of direction being completely off. After a moment of wildly flailing his arms in confusion as he tried to regain his bearings, he stopped moving altogether and allowed the buoyancy of the water to naturally lift him to the surface. He broke through the surface, taking in a deep breath. However, when he still found his world was spinning, he accidentally took in a deep breath of water instead. Spluttering, the hybrid managed to find the rim of the pool and heave himself out of the water. Still coughing up a storm, he collapsed into a heap on the other side of the stone rim.

"Ugh... vertigo..." he rubbed his eyes as soon as his dizziness stopped. He was soaking wet and shivering. Opening his fluorescent green eyes, he sat up. The halfa was in another small cave, just like the one he had been in only a few moments earlier. Only, as he peered out of the opening, he could tell right away that he was in very different surroundings. Rolling his eyes, Danny grumbled about the ghost's hospitality as he stood up and walked out of the drafty cave, "Bet this jerk made that pool that way just to tick me off even more than I already am..."

The sky was that familiar black with green swirling clouds. So, this place was definitely in the Ghost Zone. Danny was in another clearing, quite identical to the one he had come across just barely back in Amity Park with the rock formation in the center of the clearing. Beyond the edge of the clearing was the beginning of a trail leading off into a forest. But it was quite different from the forest that Danny had just been in. These trees were a lot taller, thicker, older, and a lot more gnarly than they were back in the Human Realm. Just over the tops of the trees he could make out several dark turrets of a castle high above him.

Remembering how very wet he was when a light breeze came by, Danny attempted to phase the water off of himself; however, he found that he couldn't. An unpleasant burning feeling had begun to develop inside his chest. _No..._. The teen's eyes widened to such a point that it was almost comical. He knew that feeling... Maybe if he tried again? Maybe his temporary vertigo had momentarily shocked his powers? And they would work now? It was a childish hope, but hey, nothing was impossible. There was no harm in trying again.

He'd thought wrong. As soon as he tried again, the pain intensified and spread to his limbs as well. Danny immediately stopped, panting. "Not again... my powers _can't_ have been short-circuited... That's the last thing I need right now!" The boy spluttered, "_When _could they have been short-circuited? I don't remember anything that could've done it. And for that matter... I'm still in ghost form. So they can't be. What gives?"

Danny attempted to call up some ecto-energy. Surprisingly, it worked. The green energy came up as easily as always. Okay... then maybe some of his powers worked while some didn't. He dispelled the energy from his hand. Guess he'd better see which ones _could_ work...

Flight? Nope—at least, not any more than the tops of the trees. It's not that it drained him of any energy, but whenever he tried to get any higher than that, some sort of invisible barrier knocked him back down... Cloning? Hehe. Forget it. Invisibility? Surprisingly yes—he just remained solid while doing this. After a minute of testing each of his abilities (bar his Wail), he sighed and folded his arms. "Jerk..." he muttered. "Gee, wonder where I've seen this scenario before? In a forest, because of some crazy ghost, with short-circuited powers—well, not really, I just can't use a lot of them, anyway—and no idea what I'm up against. Well, at least I can say that it's minus the company, right? That's a plus."

"Aw... I'm heartbroken, Little Badger."

Danny's eyes snapped into focus as his throat contracted to the size of a straw. He quickly whipped himself around.

And there was Plasmius, leaning his shoulder against the opening of the rock formation with folded arms.

"What are you doing here?" Danny clenched his hands into fists as he glared at this unwelcome newcomer.

Vlad smiled and slowly straightened up, leisurely walking toward the teen. "I'm afraid you spoke too soon, Daniel. You'll have me as company this time as well."

"How did you find me? Did you follow me?!"

"Now, Daniel, let me explain..." the elder held up a hand as the smile faded to a sober expression.

But Danny didn't want to hear any of it. So great was his pent up anger, frustration, and desperation, he had to release it all on the elder hybrid. "Why didn't you _help _back there, Plasmius?! _Then_ they wouldn't even be in this situation!"

"Don't make such a fuss, boy! I had been at home until I had caught wind of the situation and only _just barely_ caught up with you!"

"Then _**how did you**_—"

"Use your head; it can't be that hard to guess, even for you, Daniel!" the elder hybrid folded his arms indignantly across his chest.

Danny glared at the elder half ghost for a moment. What? How did he know he was here if he didn't follow... Danny's eyes widened in sudden understanding. _Of course... that fruit loop is always spying on me using those little..._ he reached behind himself and felt his back for a few seconds before finding what he was looking for. He pulled the bug off of his jumpsuit and brought it around to his front.

"Figures... When did you...? It was that chess game wasn't it." Danny asked, or more stated.

Vlad nodded, shrugging offhandedly when he opened his mouth to speak. Danny, however, cut him off before he could start. "And why, may I ask, did you put a _tracking device _on me _this time? _Ah, it doesn't matter anymore! **I** need to go in there," he vehemently pointed a finger in the direction of the castle at the top of the mountain, "find **my** friends, kick those ghosts' butts, and teachthem a thing or two about messing with **me **and the people **I **care about! Now, if you'll excuse me, that's what **I'm** gonna go and do..." And, with all of the emphasis on 'me' the halfa put, he made it very clear what his intentions were. And, with that said, the ghost boy did an about face and started marching off towards the end of the clearing in the vague direction of the castle.

Plasmius was left slightly at a loss of how to react. After a moment of staring after the simmering teenager with creased eyebrows, he quickly covered the distance between them by flying right in front of the boy. Grabbing one of his arms with half-lidded eyes, Vlad lightly asked, "Don't you think you're forgetting someone, Daniel?"

Growling, Danny attempted to pull away. "No, I don't think I did."

"Yes, you did," Vlad chuckled, inflaming Danny's rage even more. "and before you ask _why _I would help you—oh don't give me that look! You can be read just like an open book, Daniel. You are that predictable! Anyways, contrary to what you may believe, dear boy, I _do _care for your sister and friends' well-being—as well as yours especially. I do not wish for you to get hurt."

"Says the fruit loop who tried to kill me only last week..." Danny muttered.

Vlad continued on without acknowledging the comment, "You do not know what you are up against, Daniel, and the unknown is never something that should be taken lightly! You _don't _know what you are up against—just now you said so yourself—and, due to that blasted arrogance of yours, which is going to be your downfall, you are underestimating these ghosts. You need my help."

"I don't need _or _want your help, Plasmius! And why on _Earth _would you think that I would believe some story like th—?"

Danny was cut off by another voice. And it wasn't Vlad's, either—that got both of their attentions.

"Welcome, hybrids..." There was a figure floating about ten or so yards away from the two, ever so slightly translucent.

"You..." Danny pointed a finger at him, guessing pretty quickly who this was. _This _must have been the ghost who was behind all of this. And now he was going to find out just why he was. "You must be that magician ghost I keep hearing about! You wanna tell me why you had your goons kidnap my friends?!" His voice shook from the anger he was now trying to control.

The dark cloaked figure lowered his hood slowly and deliberately, his glowing pale blue eyes less pronounced now that they were out of the shadows. "To get you to come, Danny Phantom. You see, I have an issue concerning you. You've done me wrong, halfa, and you need to pay."

Danny tensed up, indignantly responding, "What? What are you talking about? I'm pretty sure I've never _met _you, not to mention done anything wrong to you!"

"Oh, you know what I am speaking of. Even if you don't, that does not change the fact that both of you destroyed something of great value to me." The ghost was surreal—as he moved, the air around him rippled. The outline of his body had no clearly defined edge. So, in a way, it was hard to tell if he was actually there or if he was just a figment of the imagination. Something about the ghost seemed vaguely familiar. Danny couldn't really put his finger on it. Maybe he _had _met this wizard before? No... he would _definitely _remember an encounter with someone like _this _one.

Vlad, more condescendingly than anything else, asked, "Excuse me... but _both _of us?" Danny shot the elder hybrid a sharp glance. The billionaire's mind was turning. What he had thought had been another instance where Daniel's heroics had gotten him into trouble once again had just been made void.

"Yes. _Both _of you. Recent light—and I mean _very _recent, at that—was shed upon the matter, and my resources have found that you were also involved—heavily. What a pleasant surprise that you happened to come as well! That saves me the extra effort." The pale ghost spoke with an air about him that suggested this whole revenge thing was simply business with the other two; it was a tone that Vlad knew well, but it sounded absurd coming from this entity about this subject. There was, however, an oh so subtle sinister quality about it. Vlad opened his mouth angrily, but the specter left him no time to respond. Stretching out his arms to either side of him to gesture to their environment, he smiled widely, "So, enough of that for now. What do you think of this wonderful place? I'm truly curious."

"I'll show you what I think, you jerk!" Danny growled, firing a blast at him. The attack harmlessly went right through him; he hadn't even done anything to evade it. The ghost raised an eyebrow as the halfa, brushing aside his confusion, got himself ready to attack once more.

"Daniel," Vlad said abruptly, causing the teenager's anger to momentarily die. "That's not really him." He calmly said. When Danny gave him a bewildered stare, he further explained, saying, "That is either a clone or hologram of sorts."

Clapping, the ghost smiled, "Bravo. That is correct—I'm not really here. If you wish to find me, I am on the top level of that castle," he pointed up in the vague direction of the summit carelessly. "and if you wish to fight me, hybrids, you will have to climb your way up there yourselves and face each of my apprentices first. You may have both beaten the Ghost King Dark, but I want to see for myself whether that was a fluke or not. I will not duel with anyone less than worthy of my time. If you lose to any of them, I will know you are not worthy after all, and you will have paid for your insolence. If you defeat them all and reach the summit in one piece, then I shall know you are, and then I will take it upon myself to deliver my vengeance. So, you see, it doesn't matter how this ends for me."

"Oh, yeah?" Danny's eyes narrowed. "If you _wanted _to see if I'm worthy enough to fight you, why did you make it so I can't use all of my powers?"

"Oh, that? _That, _young hybrid, was to ensure that neither of you can take any shortcuts. When both of you entered my domain, I manipulated your powers to fit my wishes. Think of his as a test... or a game: where would the fun be in cheating? So, I will make it possible to use your powers to their fullest extent in times of distress or battle. Otherwise, you will not be able to use your powers, namely intangibility and flight, to find any alternate route other than the one I have planned for you. You will not do anything I do not want you to. I took the extra step to make sure none of that would happen. Now, if you refuse to comply with my desires, I'm sure that my apprentices will think up very creative endings for each of your friends... I will see you both soon..."

The hologram of the ghost disappeared. There was silence for several seconds as both Danny and Vlad stared at the place he had been. Danny turned back to Vlad, eyebrows furrowed. Plasmius, to the teen, had the weirdest expression in the world at that moment. It looked as if... as if he had just been enlightened to something. What the heck?!

"No, Daniel. If it is necessary, I will beat it into you. You. Will. Accept. My. Help." Vlad's tone was unnaturally calm and low. Was there a little worry or concern in there? Danny didn't think he'd ever heard the man have this tone ever in all the time he had known him.

Danny didn't respond at first. His eyes had been drawn to the opening in the rock behind the elder vampire-like ghost. The bright green glow was gone. The teenager's eyes widened once again. "Um... I guess I don't have a choice anymore anyways. The portal's gone." Vlad blinked at Danny before turning around to see for himself.

"He's trapped us in here..." Vlad cursed under his breath. Sniffing while adjusting his white cape, he started off briskly for the trail at the edge of the clearing. Danny blinked while staring at the billionaire before jumping as if he had sat on a pushpin and running after him. "Well, then. Guess we'd better get to it and teach that fool of a ghost for messing with us. He had no idea what we are capable of..." He turned back to Danny with a wry grin on his face, "Right, Little Badger?"

* * *

***sigh* I wanted to pull an Undergrowth joke back towards the beginning, but then I remembered that Urban Jungles hasn't happened yet.**

**Well, I'm glad to announce that I've organized all of my thoughts for this story, and I now have the rest of it planned almost event for event! I say 'almost' because I'm still thinking about adding something here and there, but yes, I have all of my ideas so far planned out in chronological order! I'm so proud of myself! This is going to make writing the rest of it so much easier on me!**

**Hope you liked it! Any comments, advice, or thoughts would be the best birthday present ever at the moment! **


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